House Party
House Party
R | 20 January 1990 (USA)
House Party Trailers

Young Kid has been invited to a party at his friend Play's house. But after a fight at school, Kid's father grounds him. None the less, Kid sneaks out when his father falls asleep. But Kid doesn't know that three of the thugs at school have decided to give him a lesson in behavior.

Reviews
Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.
Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!
Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.
OllieSuave-007 This is a wacky little flick that I saw during 7th grade in class. Lots of forced comedy and wild dialog, but entertaining at certain points. Plenty of my classmates loved it, but I thought it was pretty average though. Grade C
aarosedi This one has very wholesome premise for a party film, that is if you look past all the swearing, an instance of somebody being beaten up, a brief no-nudity sex scene. There's no depiction of drug use, there's only a single instance of teenage drinking which was admonished by other teens, the house party is just full of salacious teenagers who are too busy with their dancing and mating rituals (everyone is too exhausted in between song numbers for them to explore the lustier side of teenage life). They are far too consumed with groping and grinding together with their dance partners, and even those who couldn't find one. The dance contests and freestyle rap battles are superb and energetic.There is that subversive humor bubbling underneath. The filmmakers' grievances and frustrations with the "authority" they loathe ever present, but not without empathy. They have a smile plastered in their faces as they bare their heart and soul to the audience. The film starts with an unembellished, mesmerizing, hypnotic crowd dance sequence that serves as a teaser to encapsulate all of the character's innermost desires. Full blown escapism that is straight-forward and spot on.Peter "Play" Martin decides to take advantage of his parent's absence and host a party for his friends at his home and they have enlisted Bilal (pre-superstardom Martin Lawrence, hysterical as always) to DJ using those bulky turntables and gigantic speakers. But unfortunately for Chris "Kid" Harris who got in trouble at the school cafeteria, his father received a note from the school principal detailing the incident which automatically grounded him, but Kid still manages to sneak out determined not to miss the party of the year. The father, upon realization that his son snuck out on him, furiously goes after him. Both of their journey to the said party are filled with zany and madcap adventures.Robin Harris shows that earnestness and fondness for his on-screen son with that seldom-seen understated tenderness in a father-son relationship. Very capable performances also from Christopher Reid , Christopher Martin, Tisha C Martin and the ensemble of actors that they assembled for this film, quite a riot. Special mention to the uproarious comedic performances from Play Martin's grumbling neighbor John Witherspoon, and to Daryl Mitchell's Chill whose intense dancing just keeps on bumping the DJ table much to Bilal's dismay. I had the chance of watching this as a kid during the '90s and I thought it was just a "funny ha-ha" decent comedy. But now 2010+, having the luxury of hindsight (knowledge of African-American history from the '60s to the '90s, background that I never had back then) and in re-watching this, I was bowled over because now I have a more mature regard for this kind of work. For me, I consider it now as a "whoa-ho-ho-ho hilarious" slice-of-life snapshot of the late-'80s-early-'90s contemporary African-American experience. My rating: B-plus.
tysonhollen I remember when I was in second grade and saw the preview in the theater when I was eight years old but I was too young to watch this flick but I can now rent it since I'm over 18.It was sad to see legendary comedic Robin Harris die after the release of this movie because he had a great sense of humor and was hilarious in this picture.I think all but the fourth movie were great.The fourth one didn't have Kid'n'Play at all and only had the stupid group IMX formerly known as Immature in it who appeared in House Party 3. This will always be a comedy classic for me in the comedy style of Barbershop.
Brian Washington This had to be one of the funnier comedies of the early 1990's. It helped to create more positive images of young black teens rather than showing the more negative aspects. Most of the films about young blacks up until then had been about them either being in gangs or on drugs. At least in this film you see the kids getting into mischief without getting into any real trouble. However, the only negative thing I have to say about the film is not about the film itself, but about the seemingly endless series of sequels that seemed to follow. To me the only the first film should be seen and not the sequels because they pretty much undermined the quality of the first film. Also, the series almost seemed to become an African-American version of the "Beach Party" films, where there pretty much was no plot and just gave the actors an excuse to party. Other than that, this is still a good film.Another note about this film. The thing that really stood out about the film was the performance of comedian Robin Harris as Kid's father. His performance pretty much helped to sell the film for me. Unfortunately, a few months after the film was released Harris died from an apparent heart attack at the much too young age of 36 and just as he was about to achieve stardom. So, this film, while enjoyable, is also a very bittersweet experience.