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There were films targeting young black audiences that attained cult status, but they didn’t receive the same adoration. “Even though you had Beat Street and Wild Style, there was nothing like this,” says Christopher “Play” Martin, who portrayed the party’s suave host. Clueless sparked a teen movie revival during the mid-’90s and Cruel Intentions supposedly put the genre 6 feet deep at the decade’s close, but House Party set the standard. The comedy, music and dancing in “House Party” made it popular with audiences but one thing that’s oft overlooked is the scene where Kid & Play end up battling each other at the party which introduced mainstream audiences to the concept of the live rap battle. Please keep in mind that in 1990 copies of “Wild Style” were nonexistant.
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The only semi-interesting part of the film features rapper-actor Scott Mescudi, a.k.a. Kid Cudi, as himself, and an “Eyes Wide Shut”-style “Illuminati” party. It’s a momentary diversion, but Mescudi is a captivating screen presence, and that’s the house party we’d actually like to see — not this messy, frustrating remake that doesn’t manage to justify its own existence. Back in 1990, Kid ‘n Play portrayed two high school students sneaking out to a house party and finding adventure along the way. In the remake, Jacob Latimore and Tosin Cole star as 20-something best friends Kevin and Damon (pronounced “Duh-mon”), ne’er-do-well party promoters by night, house cleaners by day, who find themselves working at LeBron James’ mansion and decide to throw a party there while he’s away.
Paul Anthony George as Stab
“A lot of movie makers of this type of film still look at House Party, business-wise, as a level to reach,” says Martin. As the film’s two female leads, Sidney (Tisha Campbell) and Sharane (A.J. Johnson) are at the center of both the film’s romantic conflicts and their own semi-rivalry. The two actresses already knew each other when House Party began casting. While he was still a student at Harvard University in the early 1980s, Reginald Hudlin came up with the idea for a short film that would eventually morph into the feature-length House Party after listening Luther Vandross’s 1982 hit "Bad Boy/Having a Party." The film received seven nominations at the 1991 Independent Spirit Awards.[15] Film director Reginald Hudlin was nominated for Best Director), Christopher "Kid" Reid was nominated for Best Male Lead), Tisha Campbell 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.
‘House Party’ Is A Classic Comedy That Showed Black Kids Being Themselves
Full Force's "Ain’t My Type of Hype" was the song playing during the iconic dance-off scene, but it is not actually on the movie's official soundtrack. Full Force, the hip-hop group who also played the film’s villains, released the song after the soundtrack was completed and it ended up being one of their biggest hits. Sadly, we would only see Harris one more time at the movies, in Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues. Shortly after House Party's release, he was found dead in his room at the Four Seasons Hotel of an apparent heart attack at the tragically early age of 36. Still, his legacy lived on, with Pop being referenced in future House Party films.
Full Force rewrote a lot of their scenes and added the "we're gonna kick your f-ing ass," chant.
John Witherspoon appears as Play's nosy neighbor Mr. Strickland in "House Party." Mr. Strickland spends most of the film looking out his window yelling at the kids over their loud music, and arguing with his wife about his interest in the girls and their outfits. Johnson, who also appeared in "School Daze" as Cecilia, continued acting after "House Party," though she did not appear in the film's sequels. As she told BET, if she did reprise the role, Sharane would've been "a successful businesswoman, owning a clothing store boutique or being a hip-hop fitness dance teacher — still ghetto and still in the projects, but a savvy business woman because she just didn't take any s–t." Tisha Campbell's sweet Sidney is a highlight of "House Party," crushing on Kid even as her friend Sharane makes a play for him. The role garnered her a Film Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Female. She again played Sidney in "House Party 2" and "House Party 3." Campbell would later win awards for her role on the series, "My Wife and Kids."
House Party was so popular, Kid ‘n Play were given their own Saturday morning cartoon.
DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince's "A Nightmare on My Street." Due to some legal issues that arose around sampling the music from A Nightmare on Elm Street, the rap duo ended up in a deal that put the House Party script in front of them. When the pair ultimately decided to pass on making the movie, it opened the door for Kid 'n Play to take on the project. The comedy waffles between nonsensically heightened and realistically grounded, often alternating between the two modes at random, never landing on a tone.
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I'm A Martin Lawrence Fan So I Ranked 19 Of His Movies From Hilarious To Kinda Funny - Yahoo Sports
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Posted: Thu, 24 Feb 2022 08:00:00 GMT [source]
He's also hosted shows, including "Your Big Break" and "Showtime at the Apollo," and branched out into stand-up comedy — not a big stretch, given his long friendship with comedian Bill Maher. Kid was a frequent guest on Maher's first talk show, "Politically Incorrect," and composed the theme song for Maher's HBO Show, "Real Time with Bill Maher," along with producers Buster & Shavoni. Maher jump-started Kid's stand-up by letting him do a brief set on "Real Time." Kid is also active on social media, including on Twitter and Instagram, and still performs music. Kid 'n Play were already a popular hip hop act when they starred in "House Party," and the film opened up new creative avenues.
Though some of the references in the film are cringey at best, the rest is, as Roger Ebert said at the time, filled with "exuberance." The teen movies of the 1980s, such as those written and directed by John Hughes, left an indelible mark on the decade. In many ways, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off are as representative of the ’80s as Reaganomics. Black teens of that era, on the other hand, had no quintessential equivalent.
The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the CDC and local health officials. AJ Johnson, a life coach, choreographer, and former In Living Color Fly Girl actually choreographed Sidney and Sharane's dance-off scene against Kid and Play (the latter provided their own moves, including their signature kick).
Robin Harris who played Kid’s father was hilarious as he searched for his son who snuck out to go to Play’s party as was a young Martin Lawrence who played Bilal. What’s even crazier is both Robin Harris and Martin Lawrence had roles in Spike Lee’s 1989 hit “Do The Right Thing”. John Witherspoon had a timely cameo as an angry neighbor and Full Force provided some unexpected comedic moments even as the villains, surprising since they were not the least bit funny when they whupped Blair Underwood’s ass in “Krush Groove”. The headline for a New York Times piece that ran just days before House Party hit theaters proclaimed, “In Hollywood, Black Is In.” Despite how Hollywood might have viewed black cinema, it wasn’t a mere trend.
She showed up again at cinemas in '90s fare like New Jack City, Doc Hollywood, and The People Under the Stairs, and in episodic spots on shows like Sibs, Martin, and ER. Nowadays, she doesn't do much acting, choosing instead to focus on her work as a designer of handbags. While Kid 'n Play were the headliners in House Party, the rest of its appealing cast helped sell Hudlin's hilarious vision as well. Harris previously appeared in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing with Martin Lawrence, and his last onscreen appearance was in Lee’s film Mo’ Better Blues (which was completed before House Party). While Lawrence is undoubtedly hilarious, he also had an “in” that most likely helped him land the role—he is Christopher “Play” Martin’s cousin. He served as the president of the BET network and received a Best Picture nomination for working as a producer on Quentin Tarantino’s 2012 film Django Unchained.
What's more, one of his most famous stand-up routines, "Bébé's Kids," was turned into an animated feature by Bruce W. Smith (Animation Director of Space Jam, among many others), in which Harris' part was voiced by actor Faizon Love. While it's sad to think we'll never see more of what Harris could do, it's a comfort to know that his comedy lives on. Already a working stand-up at the time of House Party's release, Lawrence was plucked from his early movie days by mogul Russell Simmons to host the groundbreaking HBO series Def Comedy Jam. While working on that show, he launched his own sitcom, Martin, which was a huge hit, making a star of its lead. Then he was cast as co-lead opposite Will Smith in Michael Bay's massive cop action hit Bad Boys, which has spawned multiple sequels up to and including 2020's Bad Boys For Life.
“Let’s get a new crew of young’uns up in there to tell it their way,” says Reid. Martin Lawrence had only appeared in one film, Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, prior to being cast in House Party. He met his future Martin co-star Tisha Campbell while working on House Party. 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.
Play went into business for himself as well, founding Playground Solutionz, a multimedia company. John Witherspoon, already a legend in Hudlin’s eyes, was cast off his work in I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, Hollywood Shuffle, and The Richard Pryor Show. And Hudlin, a huge Parliament-Funkadelic fan, wrote a role specifically for George Clinton—the funk deity has a cameo as a fast-talking DJ at a bougie affair—so he might have the chance to meet him. Full Force, who were already known for their own music as well as writing and producing for Kurtis Blow and Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, wound up in House Party as the bullies because the script already included descriptions of them. “It said something like, They get accosted by three bullies with great physiques and Jheri curls, somebody like Full Force,” says singer Lou “Bowlegged Lou” George, who played Pee-Wee. ‘House Party’ was filmed in California and Georgia, especially in Los Angeles County and Atlanta.
The two get their comeuppance in a mid-credits scene when the roof blown off the house in the film's opener flattens them. In February 2018, LeBron James and his SpringHill Entertainment partner Maverick Carter announced that they’d be co-producing a modern take on the film with a script written by Stephen Glover and Jamal Olori, most notably of FX’s Atlanta. Both Reid and Martin are eager to see how the concept translates in the modern era and for the new handlers to succeed at that.
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