Life of the Party - reviewed.

Melissa McCarthy was on fire for a while — several years. Has her time subsided or is it unrealistic to expect someone to stay on top of a particular field for so long? Especially a field that can be as fickle and wishy-washy as show business?

Those were the thoughts going through my head as I watched this movie. Probably not a good sign when you’re watching a movie and not actually paying attention to it.

The movie started off normal enough. It almost seemed understated compared to some of McCarthy’s other films.

I thought it could end up being a family comedy at first. But that soon changed ... somewhat.

The problem with this movie is that it straddled the line between family-friendly comedy and ‘outrageous’ comedy.

McCarthy is great at playing those potty-mouthed characters. But she’s kind of a one trick pony in that sense. I get the impression she’d like to break out of that mold a bit.

McCarthy’s acting was fine in this movie — good, in fact — but her character flopped back and forth between a normal mom who you could empathize with to that zany Melissa McCarthy trademark character.

It was a little bit hard to get a handle on what this comedy was supposed to be.  It was somewhat boring for an outrageous comedy, but it wasn't normal enough to be a family comedy.

I thought this movie would be an easy one to get right. A mom going back to school while her daughter is also finishing up her senior year of college?

Seemed like all kinds of fun could happen but the script didn’t live up to the potential.

Instead, we got a Melissa McCarthy movie that focuses on McCarthy’s character --- Deanna --- and almost just her character.  Deanna's daughter should have been an equal star in this story based on the premise.

Maddie (Molly Gordon) was just there for some punchlines.

McCarthy is great. But she excels when she has a good case and good material to work with.

Maddie's sorority girls were good, but the main plot just didn't focus enough on them.  This movie treated everyone not named Melissa McCarthy like they were just filler, at best.

Jack (Luke Benward), her young, college-aged love interest entered into the fray with a one-night stand.  He ended up being the son of a rude woman who didn't like Deanna.

I essentially tuned out after that.  I hung on as long as I could.

I think they should’ve gone full-on ‘outrageous’ like The Hangover and Bridesmaids or they should’ve left that stuff out and gone for an actual drama / comedy that someone like Sandra Bullock or Julia Roberts would be cast in.

This movie lives in between those two places and, as a result, gets lost before it could even get started.


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• Ant-Man and The Wasp - reviewed.
• The Avengers: Infinity War - reviewed.
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Rampage - reviewed.

I didn’t intend on watching this but it was the best option of the flight I was recently on. So, Rampage it was.

Sometimes it’s best to go into a movie with no (or minimal) expectations because it surprises you.

I’ll admit that the movie didn’t start the way I thought it would.

Granted I didn’t watch every trailer so maybe the setup of the movie was previewed in one of those.

The Rock is a zookeeper (or zoologist?).  He has a special bond with one gorilla in particular.  A space crash, one mad scientist and a full-on mutation later, Davis Okoye (The Rock) is now teaming up with an attractive genetic engineer, Dr. Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris).

Davis' relationship with George was a bit corny. Or a lot corny. I don’t know exactly what it’s like dealing with apes, but I find it very hard to believe that they can understand dialogue the way The Rock’s character was delivering it.

A basic understanding? Sure. But understanding sarcasm (enough to flip a human off)? I doubt it.

I’m no animal expert so maybe.  I doubt it though.

The genetics theme is a bit overplayed.  It’s just like Jurassic Park. When will these movie humans learn?

Don’t mess with things you shouldn’t mess with.

Anyway, turns out there's not just a mutated, giant gorilla.  There's a wolf and an alligator too.

I won't spoil all of it (there's not much to spoil) in case you want to watch it but the animals are all teaming up in a common goal until Davis can get a chance to make George snap out of it.

There's a government agent (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) who is kind of Davis' frenemy.  He's Against Davis and then he's helping him.  I felt like that relationship should have had a more pivotal turning point.  There wasn't though.

The villain (basically the scheming, corporate mad scientist) in the movie was played by Malin Åkerman.  She's a good actress and does well with the role, but at the end of the day it's all too cartoonish to be taken seriously.

I like a lot of light-hearted movies or over-the-top movies but this failed on those fronts.  It just wasn't that entertaining.  It was preditiable and too 'out there' to be remotely plausible.


Related Content:
• Life of the Party - reviewed.
• Bumblebee - reviewed.
• Aquaman - reviewed.
• The Christmas Chronicles - reviewed.
• Tomb Raider - reviewed.
• Venom - reviewed.
• Ant-Man and The Wasp - reviewed.
• The Avengers: Infinity War - reviewed.
• The Black Panther - reviewed.
• My most anticipated movies of 2018