Do laundry. Clean the fish tank. Re-grout the bathroom. What do these things have in common? They are much better ways to spend your time than sitting through Melissa McCarthy’s uninspired and forced “Life of the Party.”
The film represents the third time the comedian has teamed up with her writer/director husband Ben Falcone – they previously did “The Boss” and “Tammy” – but not only is the new one the weakest, it also may raise questions about the continued viability of McCarthy starring in these solo films.
‘Life of the Party’
Rating: PG-13 for “sexual material, drug content and partying”Running time: 105 minutes
McCarthy plays a frumpy housewife in middle age who returns to college alongside her daughter after her husband of 23 years dumps her. Young people may not recognize the premise has been swiped from 1986’s “Back to School” with Rodney Dangerfield but every other cliche of college movies is present in “Life of the Party.”
Our frumpy heroine in a bedazzled sweater must at some point get a sexy makeover, right? Oh, yes. She must attend drunken keggers and loosen up? You guessed it. She accidentally ingests pot? Sure. A college stud suddenly gets turned on by this older woman? Naturally. Mean, superhot girls become her sarcastic bullies? Yawn.