As she and her husband drop off their daughter for her last year of college, middle-aged mom Deanna, (Melissa McCarthy) learns that he husband wants a divorce. Turning her rejection into a new beginning, Deanna enrols in college to complete her long neglected degree. College life is different than Deanna remembers but her outgoing, upbeat personality begins to rub off on fellow students.
We say, 鈥�Life of the Party is pleasant and harmless.鈥�
TAYLOR: I鈥檓 not really a fan of McCarthy鈥檚 work, but I do think she鈥檚 a capable enough actor. Most of her films have her portray characters that are either obnoxious loud-mouths or oddballs. In Tammy for instance, McCarthy鈥檚 Tammy character was a likeable goofball and although the film was neither particularly funny nor great, it wasn鈥檛 annoying. McCarthy鈥檚 Deanna character, in Life of the Party is a sweet, optimistic supermom thrust into atypical college life.
HOWE: Life of the Party is not funny, well I take that back, there is one funny moment in it, but when you are paying good money to watch a comedy you expect more for your buck. I find nearly all of McCarthy鈥檚 movies are the same: weak scripts, weak acting and even unfunny jokes. I can鈥檛 believe she still gets leading roles in films.
TAYLOR: I think I know the joke you laughed at, it鈥檚 the same one I laughed at and a nice surprise about half way through the film. Although I couldn鈥檛 recommend Life of the Party as a good and funny comedy, I still can鈥檛 stop coming back to the fact that it didn鈥檛 bother me. It鈥檚 like a tall glass of tepid tap water on a hot day: you鈥檒l drink it but you鈥檒l be sorry if you had to pay for it.
HOWE: I will have to agree with you on all of the points you mentioned. Still, I was so bored and fed up with it that I was looking at the time to see how much more of this awful film I had to sit through. I could have spent it a lot more creatively like watering the garden, mowing the grass or cleaning out the cat litter.
Taylor gives Life of the Party 2 trips to the library out of 5.
Howe gives it 1 good joke out of 5.
