100 min | R | January 13, 2023 | Warner Bros. Pictures
Two broke friends throw a giant party in a celebrity’s mansion to get rich quick. The original is a scrappy cult classic with two leads and nothing to lose. This remake swaps the scrappiness for a parade of cameos and a soundtrack loud enough to drown out the jokes.
Kevin and Damon are two friends in Los Angeles who lose their jobs cleaning houses. They need money fast. They discover that one of the homes they service belongs to a famous athlete who is out of town. So they throw a massive party in his mansion and charge admission. House Party remakes the 1990 comedy and keeps the bones of that plot. The film treats the original as a brand to exploit rather than a story to honor.
Jacob Latimore plays Kevin as the cautious one, a single father chasing one big score to fund his daughter’s future. Latimore gives the part real warmth that the script keeps undercutting with frantic plotting. Tosin Cole plays Damon as the schemer who pushes every bad idea forward. Cole has charm but the movie asks him to mug instead of act. Karen Obilom plays Venus with more restraint than the material earns, and D.C. Young Fly turns Vic into a loud cartoon. Kid Cudi appears as himself under his given name Scott Mescudi and commits to a koala bit that the film thinks is funnier than it is.
Calmatic directs his first feature after a career making music videos, and the inexperience shows in every choice. The film moves like a long commercial. Bright cinematography, quick cuts, and a wall of needle drops paper over scenes that have no comic rhythm. The script by Jamal Olori and Stephen Glover stuffs the movie with celebrity cameos and references that function as product placement for famous people. The mansion set looks expensive and feels empty. Calmatic stages the party as a montage of bodies and brands rather than a sequence of escalating jokes.
House Party fails because it does not understand what made the first film work. The original is loose, cheap, and alive with the personalities of its leads. This version is glossy and crowded and afraid of silence. Every time a scene threatens to find a genuine laugh, the movie cuts to a cameo or cranks the soundtrack. The result is a party you want to leave early.