Life of the Party: McCarthy Spotlight

Melissa McCarthy is the Life of the Party.

McCarthy re-teams with her husband, Ben Falcone for the third time. He directed and she starred in The Boss and Tammy.  

Life of the Party shakes things up on August 7. It's on Blu-Ray combo pack and DVD. The Digital format already appeared on July 24.

PARTY

Life of the Party made over $65 million worldwide. Rotten Tomatoes scored at an unimpressive 37%.

(This is a much lower result compared to movies like Bridesmaids, Identity Thief, and The Heat. Which all featured McCarthy.)

McCarthy co-wrote the screenplay with her husband. The couple produced through their production company, On the Day.

The cast includes Gillian Jacobs, Maya Rudolph, Julie Bowen, Matt Walsh, Molly Gordon, Stephen Root, Jacki Weaver, Jessie Ennis, Adria Arjona, Debby Ryan and Jimmy O. Yang.  

TAKE

Would I buy this film?

More of a rainy day selection, a rental, streaming or discounted price.

As mentioned in the past, comedy is a very subjective genre. What some people find funny, others won't.

Is it a great movie? Not really.

The cast appears to have improvised many of their scenes. (The special features highlight this fact too.) Found it a little hard to get into the rhythm at the beginning.

Are there laughs? Yes.

Father Figures and Game Night didn't make me laugh. Life of the Party has a few scenes with big laugh-out-loud moments. This is combined with a handful of chuckles sprinkled throughout the 105 minutes.    

The points drop when the jokes don't hit the mark. And it happens.

The story is simple. McCarthy’s Deanna drops off her daughter, Maddie, for the last year of college. As they drive away, Deanna’s husband, Dan, says he wants a divorce. Deanna starts thinking about the college life she never finished. She decides to join her daughter at college.

I guess the story highlights what boils down to a mid-life crisis. There's also mother and daughter talks, classes, parties, weird roommates, late-night relationships, friendships and more. It’s kept very PG-13.

There are sprinkles of drama too, but it doesn’t get too complicated.  

If you are not a fan of Melissa McCarthy, it's probably best to avoid this.   

If you like McCarthy, well, there is hardly a scene in which she is not included.  She does seem to give it her best effort and appears to be having fun with the role. 

SPECIAL FEATURES OVERVIEW

The standard DVD only has 80’s Party.

80’s Party (4 minutes, 51 seconds)

- There is an 80’s Party sequence in the movie. This discusses the costumes, dancing, and some 80’s references.   

Mom Sandwich (2 minutes, 45 seconds)

- McCarthy and her husband, discuss that Deanna’s parents are loosely based on Melissa’s real parents. Something to do with sandwiches. 

Deleted Scenes (46 minutes, 36 seconds)

- The time length here is quite surprising. Only a few scenes are not featured in the final cut. Most are actual scenes straight out of the film. The story beats are the same, but play out differently as the actors try out other lines. Some scenes stretch out way too long.

Line-O-Rama (3 minutes, 2 seconds)

- Other scenes as improvisation mode continue.

Bill Hate-O-Rama (2 minutes, 44 seconds)

- Creative insults are found here…a couple gets reused from the deleted scenes.  

Gag Reel (5 minutes, 25 seconds)

- What you would find in most Gag Reels. I have seen better and funnier ones.

Warner Brothers Home Entertainment