You can tell that “House Party 3” is pretty much where Kid and Play are on the way out, pop culture wise. It seems while New Line Cinema funded their first two films, they drastically cut the budget for this third entry in to the series. And it shows big time. It looks dated. Even more dated than the first one. The photography is hazy, the camera work is amateur, there is an obscene amount of close ups on character faces, and the comedy is nowhere to be found. There isn’t a single laugh to be had here. And the slapstick escapist tone is all but missing.
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
House Party 2 (1991)
Kid has had a tough road ahead of him. In the original “House Party” we learn his mom died, and when we meet him in the sequel his father has died too. This is obviously to coincide with the death of comedian Robin Harris who played Kid’s father in the original, and it’s sad he couldn’t present us with a funny performance for this sequel. He was hilarious in the original, and a great foil for Kid. This time around Kid is living with Play, now an orphan, and is on his way to college. This is a great addition to Kid’s back story and adds some real emotional anchor to the film, because Kid is now pressured to live up to his dad’s legacy and achieve an education that his dad was so desperate for him to accomplish.
The Old Chair (2012)
It’s fantastic what some filmmakers can do when they’re given only a certain amount of time. I’ve seen short films literally crash and burn under the weight of their time restraint, while some just end without much of an explanation. Director Drew Daywalt however manages to squeeze in a back story, exposition, a full narrative and horrifying scares in a little under five minutes, and god help me, “The Old Chair” works as a horror film.
House Party (1990)
Kid n Play originally began their careers as rap rivals, and you can sense a lot of that rivalry in their performances as Kid and Play in “House Party.” Much of that interplay of two rappers pitted against each other is carried over, even though the film establishes them as best friends. Very often “House Party” involves Kid and Play making a move on the same girl, and competing for attention not only for their friends, but from pretty much everyone they come across. Because of that “House Party” is a bonafide party film that is quite the entertaining guilty pleasure, if you’re willing to re-visit the early nineties. Born from the remnants of the eighties, “House Party” is a film that’s awfully dated but still very fun and equally funny to sit through.
The Gingerdead Man (2005)
The best thing to do with “The Gingerdead Man” is not take it seriously. At all. It’s a dumb, goofy, and cheesy horror comedy that invokes the likes of “Jack Frost” and “Child’s Play” to tell a story that’s giddy with cheesiness from the get go. One of the fun aspects of the movie that I intend to follow is the location of the ingredients that spawn the Gingerdead Man. Once bakery owner Sarah receives a mysterious box of gingerbread ingredients, the mysterious mix spawns the evil gingerdead man from the dough. Where did it come from? Who sent it? Who has it out for Sarah? I want to know and I hope the sequels tackle this mystery in the next two films of the apparent trilogy.
Red (2012)
There aren’t nearly enough animated independent films out there. And when there are, there aren’t nearly enough willing to experiment with the medium. “Red” is a fantastic short and sweet ditty that takes the Red Riding Hood fairy tale and adds another twist on the lore. Sure, we’ve seen the mythos of Red Riding Hood twisted and turned on its head providing allegories and symbolism for everything under the sun, but “Red” does something different.
The Crow (1994) [Blu-Ray]
It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost twenty years since the release of Brandon Lee’s final film, but here we were with a brand new release of his landmark film “The Crow.” In a long overdue treatment it deserves more than most titles out on the Blu-Ray format as we speak “The Crow” hasn’t shown wrinkles at all. “The Crow” is a film that garners a soundtrack with some of the most notable rockers of the nineties, along with some rather of the decade colloquialisms, and still manages to feel completely and utterly timeless. That’s because the world Alex Proyas shapes in his 1994 masterpiece is void of shape and time.