Life of the Party

Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Matt Walsh, Molly Gordon, Ben Falcone, Jacki Weaver, Stephen Root, Maya Rudolph, Gillian Jacobs, Adria Arjona, Jessie Ennis, Chris Parnell, Julie Bowen, Heidi Garner, Jimmy O. Yang, Nat Faxon, Christina Aguilera
Directed by: Ben Falcone
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy
2018

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: After her husband (Matt Walsh) divorces her, a woman (Melissa McCarthy) enrolls inc college with her daughter (Molly Gordon) to finish her degree.

Review:

Tim: Can someone please prevent Ben Falcone from directing movies? The guy is a hack and the collaboration with his wife haven't done either of them any favors. I usually try not to open up reviews that harshly and I'm always mindful that just because a movie didn't appeal to me, doesn't mean it's a "bad" movie. I consciously understand that, but emotionally, I'm pretty frustrated that the Falcone-Melissa McCarthy pairing has now resulted in multiple bad movies (Tammy, The Boss, and now this one). Three strikes and you're out my friends (unfortunately, iMDB tells me they have another collaboration coming now). I'm sure that will be bad like the others.

I wouldn't say Life of the Party is the kind of movie that makes you livid, but there is a dull level of annoyance that I once again wasted my time. This movie isn't very funny, is obvious and oftentimes ridiculous. SPOILER- Having a big musician show up to your party at the end of the movie to save the day has been done a bunch of times before and it's been a bad idea every single time. So why on earth would they do that again here? It's 2018 and it's like Falcone and McCarthy have willfully remained ignorant of past mistakes, both theirs in their previous collaborations, and lessons that any intelligent human being should have learned. This film is riddled with cliches and mistakes that should have easily been avoided.

Like many failed films, there's a worthwhile idea at the heart of it. A woman is divorced and decides to go back to college to finish her degree. Of course, it's the same college her daughter attends. I could go with this and buy into it. But, she immediately gets placed into a dorm room. You're telling me that a university in America would allow a grown up to room with a college student? Clearly this film has no idea how nontraditional students work. This is one example of dozens and dozens where a decision was made to further the story but didn't make sense in the real world. That's lazy writing and as Falcone and McCarthy also wrote the script, you can see where my frustration starts to come out. The Christina Aguilera thing was so idiotic. I could go on, but you get the idea.

I really believe that McCarthy needs to make more movies without Falcone. I truly do believe McCarthy has some talent and can be a funny actress. However, she needs someone else to inspire her. I also think she should stop writing her own material. It's not working very well. I hate to say it, but some of the issues are probably that McCarthy isn't a movie star. She doesn't have the ability to carry a movie by herself. She's almost always more effective in a supporting role or where she's surrounded by other strong people. I know she wants to be a lead, but the results are consistently poor.

I felt pretty ambivalent about the supporting cast here. Matt Walsh was fine, but I didn't find him humorous at all. Molly Gordon seemed like an inexperienced, bad actress. I want to blame Falcone for directing her poorly, but whomever is at fault, Gordon doesn't seem believable. Maya Rudolph was consistently annoying and unfunny, as usual. One prime example is the restaurant scene. It's painfully unfunny and Rudolph has no idea that she's not effective. I actually like Gillian Jacobs and believe she did some good things here. I wish she was in a better movie, but she does contribute. Chris Parnell was fine and had some decent moments. Julie Bowen was pretty much the same. As a whole, though, Falcone doesn't know how to leverage his cast. He seems far more concerned with how his wife is portrayed, rather than focusing on the entirety of the cast.

This movie really isn't all that funny. There's a good physical gag when McCarthy sets her ex-husband's belongings on fire and a mildly entertaining exchange during the racquetball scene. As a whole, though, this is a surprisingly unfunny comedy.

As you can see, I wasn't a fan of Life of the Party. It took a solid idea and it absolutely wrecked the execution of it. I was seriously on my phone the entire time I watched this movie- I could not bring myself to stay focused on it. For two people who think they're funny, Falcone and McCarthy have a shockingly unfunny track record. They've now delivered 3 bad movies in a row. I'll see you back here when I'm ranting about their fourth failed attempt to make a good movie.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Tammy, The Boss