House Party (1990 Film)
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''House Party'' is a 1990 American
comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...
directed by
Reginald Hudlin Reginald Alan Hudlin (born December 15, 1961) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer. Along with his older brother Warrington Hudlin, he is known as one of the Hudlin Brothers. From 2005 to 2008, Hudlin was President of Entertainmen ...
. It stars Christopher "Kid" Reid and Christopher "Play" Martin of the
hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...
duo
Kid 'n Play Kid 'n Play is an American hip-hop duo from New York City who were most popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It is composed of Christopher Reid ("Kid") and Christopher Martin ("Play") working alongside their DJ, Mark "DJ Wiz" Eastmond. B ...
, B-Fine of Full Force, and Robin Harris. It is the first installment in the ''House Party'' film series. The film was written and directed by
Reginald Hudlin Reginald Alan Hudlin (born December 15, 1961) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer. Along with his older brother Warrington Hudlin, he is known as one of the Hudlin Brothers. From 2005 to 2008, Hudlin was President of Entertainmen ...
, based on his award-winning
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
student film. It was a commercial success, grossing $26 million against a $2.5 million budget. Upon its initial release, the film garnered critical acclaim and has since become a
cult classic A cult following is a group of Fan (person), fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some List of art media, medium. The latter is often cal ...
. The lead roles were originally written for
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince were an American hip hop duo from West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, consisting of the rapper and actor Will Smith (the Fresh Prince) and the turntablist Jeff Townes (DJ Jazzy Jeff). Active from 1986 to 1994 an ...
. In 2022, the film was selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...
by the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


Plot

At the very beginning of the movie, kids dance inside of a house and the noise is so loud that it blows the roof off. In his high-school cafeteria, Peter, also known as "Play," announces that he will be having a party at his house that night as his parents are on vacation. The reluctant student Bilal is to be the DJ. Their friend Christopher "Kid" Robinson Jr. gets involved in an altercation with school bully Stab and his brothers, Pee-Wee and Zilla. At home, Kid tries to convince his father Christopher "Pop" Robinson Sr. to let him go to the party. Pop relents at first, but after getting a call from school about Kid's fight with Stab, Pop changes his mind and grounds his son for his actions. Rather than miss the party of the year, Kid sneaks out while Pop is sleeping. However, the door closing behind Kid awakens Pop. On his way to the party, Kid is stopped by the neighborhood police and runs into Stab and his brothers, jumps over a fence where a fat man named Roughouse is having sex. Kid, along with Stab, Zilla, and Pee-Wee, are shot at by Roughouse. Kid ducks into a nearby Alpha Delta Sigma reunion to escape them. Crashing the reunion, Kid has the DJ scratch and mix a few of his old
doo wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a subgenre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, ...
records so that he can liven the party with a rap, until Stab and the others arrive. Trying to escape, Kid accidentally knocks down an older man. Kid and the bullies are caught by the neighborhood police, who humiliate the teenagers before letting them go. Kid's father is stopped and harassed by the police while trying to find him. The party is in full swing when Kid arrives. During the party, Chill bumps the DJ table, which angers Bilal and other guests, and it nearly results in a fight between the two. Kid and Play get into a dance contest with attractive girls Sydney and Sharane (originally it was Kid and Groove against Sydney and Sharane, but after Groove gets drunk and passes out, Play takes his place), then have a freestyle battle. Stab and his friends attempt to crash the party, but are arrested a second time for attempting to burn the house down. The police officers take delight in the prospect of beating them up. Eventually, Pop reaches the party. After failing to find him, Pop vows to wait for Kid at home. Play stops the party after his bathroom toilet is broken. Although Kid and Sydney have eyes for each other, Sharane decides to flirt with Kid openly, much to Sydney's disgust. Soon, the three leave the party, but when Kid tries to make advances on Sharane, she rebuffs him. Kid walks Sydney back home, and, after some argument, the pair calm down. Sydney allows Kid to sneak into her house. The two are about to have sex there when she stops him, wanting to know if she is simply his second choice. Kid admits that Sydney was his first choice all along. However, they do not do anything after realizing that Kid's only condom is too old to be used. When Sydney's parents come home – now revealed as one of the couples at the high-school reunion including the man Kid ran into – Sydney helps Kid sneak out of the house. Kid manages to get out of another scrape with Stab and his brothers and they all end up in a jail cell. Kid entertains the rest of the men in the cell by rapping, distracting them long enough for Play, Sharane, Bilal, and Sydney to arrive and bail him out. Later, the five friends say their good nights. Kid and Sydney share a passionate kiss. After Play and Bilal drop him off, Kid sneaks in the house and gets undressed. As he is about to get into bed, he looks up to find Pop holding a belt as he prepares to spank him. As the credits roll, Pop is heard hitting Kid with the belt making various comments before telling him to go to sleep and not to wake up until he tells him to. In the mid-credits, the roof that was blown off earlier lands on top of the departing police officers.


Cast


Music


Soundtrack

A soundtrack containing hip hop and R&B music was released on March 9, 1990, by
Motown Records Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. Founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, it was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau ...
. It peaked at 104 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and 20 on the
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip-hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Luminate. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, ...
.


Release

The film premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...
on January 20, 1990, where it won the Cinematography Award for Peter Deming and a Filmmakers Trophy for Reginald Hudlin. On March 9, 1990, the film opened in 520 theaters and grossed $4,611,024. It became a
sleeper hit In the entertainment industry, a sleeper hit refers to a film, television series, music release, video game or other entertainment product that was initially unsuccessful on release, but eventually became a surprise success. A sleeper hit may have ...
, making over $26 million on a $2.5 million budget.


Reception

''House Party'' was met with critical acclaim. On
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film has a 94% approval rating based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''House Party'' is a light, entertaining teen comedy with an infectious energy." On
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' gave it three out of four stars and commended its "energy and exuberance". He called the film "wall-to-wall with exuberant song and dance" and stated, "the musical is a canvas used by the director, Reginald Hudlin, to show us black teenagers with a freshness and originality that's rare in modern movies". The film received seven nominations at the 1991 Independent Spirit Awards. Film director
Reginald Hudlin Reginald Alan Hudlin (born December 15, 1961) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer. Along with his older brother Warrington Hudlin, he is known as one of the Hudlin Brothers. From 2005 to 2008, Hudlin was President of Entertainmen ...
was nominated for Best Director), Christopher "Kid" Reid was nominated for Best Male Lead),
Tisha Campbell Tisha Michelle Campbell (born October 13, 1968) is an American actress and singer. She made her screen debut appearing in the 1986 rock musical comedy film ''Little Shop of Horrors'', and later starred on the NBC musical comedy drama ''Rags to ...
and A.J. Johnson were both nominated for Best Supporting Female), Robin Harris was nominated for Best Supporting Male), and the film's cinematographer Peter Deming was nominated for the Best Cinematography. The film was also nominated for Best First Feature.


Sequels

The film was a popular success, and two
sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music, or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...
s were made: ''House Party 2'' in 1991, and ''House Party 3'' in 1994. ''House Party 2'' features Lawrence and Campbell reprising their roles from the first film. The two began starring in the TV sitcom ''
Martin Martin may refer to: Places Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Europe * Martin, Croatia, a village * Martin, Slovakia, a city * Martín del Río, Aragón, Spain * M ...
'' the following year. ''House Party 3'' features hip hop/ R&B groups
TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an A ...
and Immature in supporting roles. In 2001, Immature, now going by IMx, starred in a direct-to-video sequel, ''House Party 4: Down to the Last Minute'', which does not feature any of the original cast from the other three films. A fifth installment and direct follow-up to the third film, titled ''House Party: Tonight's the Night'' was filmed in 2012 with Tequan Richmond, Zac Goodman, Tristin Mays, Alex McGregor, Rolonda Watts and Gary Anthony Williams. The film was a direct to DVD release in 2013, and marked the return of Kid 'n Play to the series. In 2018, it was announced that basketball star
LeBron James LeBron Raymone James Sr. ( ; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is the NBA's all-time leading scorer and ...
, along with his SpringHill Entertainment partner Maverick Carter would be producing a new ''House Party'' film with Stephen Glover and Jamal Olori writing the screenplay. "This is definitely not a reboot. It’s an entirely new look for a classic movie. Everyone I grew up with loved ''House Party''. To partner with this creative team to bring a new ''House Party'' to a new generation is unbelievable. Listen, it's fun, it's an honor when I got the opportunity to produce it, reboot the whole movie, man, I had so much fun as a kid watching that movie," James said. "We’re trying out some ideas for musicians to be cast in and to be a part of the project," Carter said. Los Angeles filmmaker Calmatic, known for directing " Old Town Road", was tapped to direct in 2019. In April 2021, Jorge Lendeborg Jr. and Tosin Cole were cast in the lead roles. It was SpringHill's last feature film. On July 28, 2021, Jacob Latimore was cast to replace Lendeborg, who dropped out of the film due to his mental well-being. Kid and Play both made cameo appearances in the 2023 film, as did producer James. In 2022, the original film was selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...
by the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


See also

*
List of hood films This is a list of hood films. These films focus on the culture and life of African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and, in some cases, Asian Americans, Asian-Americans or White Americans who live in segregated, low-income urban c ...


References


External links

* * * {{Reginald Hudlin 1990 directorial debut films 1990 films 1990 independent films 1990 musical films 1990 romantic comedy films 1990s American films 1990s buddy comedy films 1990s English-language films 1990s hip-hop films 1990s musical comedy films 1990s romantic musical films 1990s teen comedy films 1990s teen romance films African-American comedy films American buddy comedy films American coming-of-age films American independent films American musical comedy films American romantic comedy films American romantic musical films American teen comedy films American teen romance films English-language buddy comedy films English-language independent films English-language musical comedy films English-language romantic comedy films English-language romantic musical films Films about parties Films directed by Reginald Hudlin Films scored by Marcus Miller House Party films Kid 'n Play New Line Cinema films Sundance Film Festival award–winning films United States National Film Registry films