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.
Tag Archives: Romance
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 Man With the Iron Fists (2012)
It’s disheartening to see that deep down, composer and hip hop artist RZA is just another filmmaker who wants to be Quentin Tarantino. It’s not a surprise to fuel the funding for “The Man with the Iron Fists,” he teams up with another popular Tarantino wannabe Eli Roth, to make a film that desperately wants to be “Kill Bill.” Tarantino can often border on obnoxious with his films, so for wannabes to keep popping up delivering relentlessly obnoxious throwbacks feels like a waste of time and resources. I assume RZA and writer Eli Roth imagined this being shown in double bills with the “Kill Bill” series or, at least “Grindhouse.” RZA displays all the hallmarks of a man anxious to be considered in the realm of Quentin Tarantino’s wonderful chop socky tribute “Kill Bill.”
Green Lantern: Extended Cut (2011) [Blu-ray]
It’s a shame when a movie has such potential to be greater than the whole of its sum and fails to live up to it in the end. That’s the case with “Green Lantern,” a movie with great promise to be one hell of a space epic with fantastical elements and a killer weapon, and yet… when all is said and done, “Green Lantern” is just a rank mess, a blunder of script faults and horrible exposition that jumps from scene to scene and only manages to pick up once our hero Hal becomes the Green Lantern. And then when he becomes the Green Lantern it’s all the movie is about. He becomes the Green Lantern and…? Nothing else. “Green Lantern” has the promise to be so much more than it puts on the screen, but what it makes up for in action set pieces it lacks in severely uninteresting characters.
Melancholia (2011)
Lars Von Trier’s examination of the apocalypse is a truly divine and ethereal cinematic experience that not only dares to explore the lasting effects of the end of the world, but also dwells on two states of mind concerning the end of the world. Like “On the Beach,” Von Trier examines the world putting on a show for itself in the wake of the apocalypse. In this version of the end of the world, Earth is destined to clash with an unknown planet from behind the sun. After centuries hidden, the planet tagged Melancholia by Earth’s denizens, has finally reached Earth’s orbit and is destined to smash in to our planet as the days progress.
Tangled (2010)
“Tangled” may not be from Pixar, but I’m of the opinion that it deserves as much love as a Pixar film from Disney does. Because as a film that hasn’t been animated from the famous sub-company, it’s surely a breathtaking absolutely imaginative fairy tale that conquers the Rapunzel and adds its own post-modern twist. Though I was initially horrified that this would be a simple “Shrek” clone, “Tangled” is very much in touch with Disney’s sensibilities. It’s more a fairy tale than a comedy and really plays on fate and destiny like traditional Disney tales than trying to hurl self aware comedy at us every single second the film plays. “Tangled” takes a rather boring story and adds a twist to it by offering up more in depth characters and plays on coincidence teaming together two lovelorn selfish individuals and giving them a reason to care for someone else outside of their own needs. That’s what “Tangled” is essentially about: two people who find something to care for beyond themselves and the tangled mess that occurs when they decide to compromise and help one another.
The Muppets (2011)
When last we saw the Muppets, it was 1999, we were following the muppets in to space and we were finally learning the secret behind Gonzo. And, let’s face it, audiences weren’t exactly clamoring to learn about Gonzo and his origin. Especially in the midst of game changing movies like “The Matrix” steamrolling theaters. This 2011 reboot basically acknowledges how antiquated the muppets have become in a society bred on computer animation and 3D and how dusty their parts have been in the face of a new generation. In spite of the nostalgia, the muppets aren’t exactly the most popular property out there and the makers behind this fully acknowledge that and create in the process a revival that’s both a tribute to the muppets and a hopeful restart of the franchise once and for all. I can’t be the only one hoping for new Kermit and Fozzy films.