Are we still under the spell of Melissa McCarthy? Can we admit she’s just a mediocre comedian trotting out endlessly trite and dull movie vehicles? After her attempt to revisit “Back to School” with her own silly, weird, often meandering comedy “Life of the Party,” I’m pretty much over McCarthy. Beyond “Bridesmaids” and “Spy,” she’s never managed to impress and keeps relying on vehicles that become vanity projects with husband Ben Falcone who doesn’t seem to know how to utilize McCarthy. One moment Deanna is hiding in the bushes crying after being dumped by her husband, the next as she burns her husband’s possessions, it explodes in her face, causing her to comically plop on to the ground.
McCarthy is once again a mid-western gal named Deanna who’s committed herself to being a wife and mom. After dropping her daughter off to college, her long time husband dumps her in favor of a younger woman. Distraught, Deanna decides she’s going to go back to college to pursue her degree, and happens to conveniently sign up to the college her daughter Maddie belongs to. Now bonding with her and her sorority, Deanna begins learning a lot about herself; especially when she begins romancing a hunky young senior.
“Life of the Party” jumps back and forth between saccharine middle aged romance to slapstick college comedy to the point where it’s distracting, and McCarthy’s character is more of a cliché than an actual protagonist we can root for. McCarthy seems to aim for her own iteration of “Back to School” sans the raunch, and this doesn’t offer her a lot of conflict whenever she’s in college. Once she steps out she’s more entrenched in real concerns like her divorce, and her husband’s habit for flaunting his new marriage. The whole idea that both parents are at war with their daughter stuck in between is very rarely explored, and once she’s in college there’s a lot of focus on her romance with college student Jake (Luke Benward). Beyond a half baked rivalry with a college girl (a very gorgeous Debby Ryan) that never goes anywhere, the college back drop feels painfully tacked on.
I’m sure she and husband Falcone could draw consolation that they get to stuff their friends on-screen and indulge in some off script improv. You know, it’s the kind where they talk non-stop but never actually say anything funny. McCarthy’s become so rote and cliché that it’s tough not to catch on to what she’s aiming for as the film progresses. The minute she has her drastic make over which magically makes her less frumpy and irritating, I thought to myself “I bet there’s a big dance number included somewhere.” Lo and behold, there’s a big eighties throwback college party and, well, you fill in the blanks. “Life of the Party” is a contrived, boring, and painfully silly vanity film that indicates McCarthy is willing to sacrifice her career so her husband can make bad movies.
The release from Warner comes with “‘80’s Party,” a segment about the big eighties party scene with the cast and crew waxing nostalgic about the decade. “Mom Sandwich” is a two minute look at how Stephen Root and Jacki Weaver’s characters were actually based on McCarthy’s parents. There are forty six minutes of deleted scenes, the silly “Line-O-Rama,” “Bill Hate-O-Rama” which focuses o character Bill being berated at the dinner scene, and of course, a five minute gag reel.