Being The Life Of The Party

Well hello there my friends! How are all of you doing? Well I hope! Another week is half done here! And with that as aways comes another on of my movie reviews. Like clock work you can always count on me to give you a new review and an accurate one that reflects just what I thought of the movie we are looking at. A funny story that I have to tell here before I get to this review and I promise you that we will get to the review here soon. So I will keep this story short and sweet. This past weekend while I was at the gym a friend of mine and an avid reader of my reviews asked me what movie I would be reviewing this week. I proceeded to tell him and we were talking about how there have not been favourable reviews on the movie I was planning on seeing. A random gym member says to me that if I liked movies that I should read Rotten Tomatoes and not IMDB because IMDB was more industry based reviews while Rotten Tomatoes is more viewer based. I tell him that I wouldn't because they are my competition. A confused look on his face he asked how are they your competition, to which I told him because I am a reviewer myself. Another member who happens to walk in the locker room at that time says well that explains why you are always watching movies on your phone. It was too funny! But funny how when you don't know something about a person or a thing that it can totally surprise you. What might seem good! Could turn out to be not so good could in fact be great while something that seems horrible can turn out to be fantastic. The same goes for movies when we see a trailer for a movie we are often thinking that it looks fantastic and than it turns out the best parts were in the trailer. Or the trailer looks cheesy and we go see it and find out that the movie was extraordinary. Now comes the three part billion dollar question. What movie are you reviewing? Was it good? Should I see it? Let me answer the first question for you right now! The movie we are reviewing this week is the new comedy written and starring comedian Melissa McCarthy titled Life Of The Party. The movie stars McCarthy(Bridesmaids) in the lead role of Deanna, Jillian Jacobs(Community) as Helen, Molly Gordon(I Am Sam) as Maddie, Julie Bowen(Modern Family) as Marcie, Debby Ryan(Jessie) as Jennifer and Maya Rudolph(Bridesmaids) as Christine. So lets find out a bit about this movie to get the answers to the other two questions.

When dropping their daughter Maddie of for her final year of college with her husband Dan,  Deanna a loving mother and housewife finds out that Dan wants a divorce and has been been seeing another woman named Marcie a local realtor. Having given the best years of her life and  sacrificed her senior year of college for him when she became pregnant Deanna decides that she wants to go back to college and finish her senior year to get her degree in archaeology. When she tells her daughter Maddie she is hesitant and unsure about having her mother on the same college campus as her. But that attitude changes when her parents divorce is finalized so her father can get remarried. Maddie and her sorority sisters take Deanna out to a frat party to take her mind of of getting divorced. Deanna after a little make over Deanna starts to have good time, even having a fling with a frat boy who is half her age. Maddie and her sorority sisters enjoy having her around more, they invite her to more parties and even make her a member of the sorority. It seems Deanna, nicknamed D Rock by the sorority sisters has fully embraced the college experience all while still managing to keep her focus on finishing her degree. But after her and some of the girls from the sorority crash and trash Deanna's ex-husbands wedding, he cuts off the money she was getting to go back to school at the behest of Marcie. Wanting to quit school because she can't afford it, Deanna is encouraged by Maddie and her sorority sisters to stay. But with no way to pay for the rest of the tuition. The girls at the sorority come up with a plan to raise the money so D Rock can finish her degree.

Well How does that sound? Sounds like a decent idea for a movie! It could be a great comedy if done correctly. But sadly this was one of those movies that looked good from the trailers but fell flat despite the second place finish at the box office. The dialogue while half decent did need some work. The movie seemed to drag a lot in parts giving you a couple of moments that were hilarious, while there were others that were supposed to be funny with only a couple of chuckles in the audience. The characters needed work and the acting in the movie could have been way better. To me the acting seemed like a bunch of nervous high school students acting on screen. A lot of the jokes weren't funny to which I surprised as Melissa McCarthy usually has some pretty good movies. Like every actress and actor they will always have good movies and bad movies. And I am chalking this one up to another poor outing here for the popular comedian. At least this wasn't as bad as her movie Tammy but it came close! Come to think of it, there have been a few poor outing lately for McCarthy. Lets hope her next outing can be better, because I like her. That being said I am giving this movie a 5.3 on the Justin Scale Of Movies which as you know automatically gives it a spot on my Flick-It pile of movies to avoid at the theatre. Perhaps you could wait till it comes out on dvd to give it a view as I would not waste my money to see this one! Well that is a warp here for my latest movie review my friends! As always remember to get out and go to the theatre to see a movie, you can't beat the theatre experience. It is something that Netflix could never reproduce! So save me a good seat and keep that popcorn freshly popped because I will be seeing you again at the movies!