Kid ‘n Play key the movie: the performance level is high throughout. Where Play is the slickster, Kid, with his bizarre hairdo-an Afro shaped like a pencil eraser-is more of a natural, wide-eyed and sincere. Kid ‘n Play are verbal prestidigitators, who can talk their way out of trouble and Reid and Martin play together with brisk chemistry, doing the classic smoothie and softie routine with brio and vigor. " to indicate harsh behavior, the quick little riffs and connotations. There’s something cheerfully fluent about this dialogue: the way the buddies keep saying “That’s cold. And a lot of it comes from Hudlin’s mastery of bright inside teen argot. The charm comes from a number of sources: the actors, the brassy camera style, the new territory being tapped. Very few have “House Party’s” energy and charm. Dozens of bad teen sex comedies, mostly set in white middle-class suburbs, have similar plots. There’s nothing very new about this, beyond the milieu. And every party boor imaginable-from a comatose drunk to a guy who keeps bumping into the stereo-shows up to do a number. Two white cops (Barry Diamond and Michael Pniewski) cruise around, desultorily chewing doughnuts and keeping order. Fine George) keep crossing his path with increasingly violent results.
Kid’s nemeses, played by Full Force (the brothers Paul Anthony, Bowlegged Lou and B. Johnson) and Sidney (Tisha Campbell), who are also being romanced by the insatiable Play. At the party he is torn between two school sirens, Sharane (A. Kid, grounded by his Pops (Harris), because of a school fight, sneaks out. Smooth Play keeps picking up women right and left, humiliating his “dragon-breathed” wallflower chum Bilal. “Party” takes place on a day and night when three young high schoolers-Kid (Christopher Reid), Play (Christopher Martin) and Bilal (Martin Lawrence)-set up a bash at Play’s place, unchaperoned because his parents are on a trip down South. It’s exaggerated, loud and consciously vulgar, but the breezy self-assurance carries it along. A hundred minutes later, they cap that gag with their last joke.
Early on, the Hudlins set the tone for what’s to follow: they blow the roof off a house. The major adult character, Robin Harris’ Pops, is a stand-up comic, a wizard at slow, nasty timing.Īnd “House Party” has been shaped by its makers-the team of writer-director Reggie Hudlin and his producer brother Warrington-to include big dance numbers and slapstick comedy scenes that almost play like dances, full of voluptuous, overblown physical gags. Johnson and Tisha Campbell as female leads. The cast includes two rap groups, Kid ‘n Play and Full Force, as heroes and villains, and two actress-dancers, A. The actors in “House Party” (citywide), a catchy, often hilarious teen-age sex comedy set in an all-black milieu, seem to think musically.