Movie Review – House Party 3

Release Date: January 12, 1994

Production Company: New Line Cinema

For my review on the first film, click here.

For my review on the second film, click here.

This was tough. I will admit it. It was tough to… decide on which film I wanted to touch as it was a toss-up between this and “Class Act.” But because, well, there are other “House Party” films after this one, I figured it would be best to have “Class Act” as a midway point, especially with what’s to come after. 🙄

As always, I will do a history lesson here. Personally, I didn’t watch this film until a long time after its release. In fact, it was 2001. Prior to watching it, I used to rely on other people’s reviews/opinions (especially those whose reviews got published on other websites, like for the DVD release) on the film to see if it would be any good, but then again, I didn’t always let it stop me. I do remember seeing listings for it to be shown on TNT or TBS, but I first watched it on VH1. Yes, it was the TV cut with the profanity censored, among other things (oh, I will get to THAT eventually). It turned out that… I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. In fact, I still enjoyed it in subsequent viewings, and with having sat through the first two before this, I might even think that I enjoyed this a little better than “House Party 2.”

I did have some issues with it, though. I will get to them after I discuss the plot, and believe me, it’s not like how I rambled on the story like I did for the second film. The story itself is about Kid, who is now engaged to a new woman named Veda (Angela Means, aka Felicia from “Friday”), preparing for the wedding, while also working with Play to manage different music acts, particularly one called “Sex as a Weapon,” who is really just TLC making a glorified cameo. Of course, some hijinks occur with Kid and Play owing money to a record producer, while also owing money to a catering company consisting of ex-cons who are supposed to cater Kid’s bachelor party.

Of course, some of the hijinks include the old child R&B act named Immature, with a very young Marques Houston. While other hijinks involve the late great Bernie Mac as Uncle Vester, the brother of Pop from the first film. Okay, before I get into other things, I have always noticed how in movies, whenever a photo is shown, be it a framed photograph, profile picture, or anything like that, it’s either a screenshot from a film or at the very least, a promotional shot for the movie, like when an actor is doing a photoshoot to promote the movie. In this case, Uncle Vester shows Kid a picture of his dad that is clearly from a scene in the first film. Also, sometime later, Veda looks through Kid’s stuff and finds a picture of Sidney, which was clearly a photo that Tisha Campbell did when she did a photoshoot for the film. It kind of annoys me in some ways.

Speaking of whom, Tisha Campbell reprises her role as Sidney for only three scenes in this film. Now, I can say that in some ways that I, like some others, would have preferred if Kid was getting married to her in this film as opposed to Veda, who was never seen in the previous films, but Campbell was doing the sitcom, “Martin” at the time, which also meant that Martin Lawrence couldn’t return. I could only guess that Kid met Veda sometime in between films and it wasn’t exactly stated how much time had elapsed between the events of “House Party 2” and this one. There was a throwaway line of Kid ‘N Play being in the music business for four years, but if I did the math, it was not enough time between the releases of HP2 and HP3 with there being only two years and three months. So I could only guess in the timeline, it was a little longer. I also suppose it was enough time for Kid to meet someone else and fall in love with that person enough that marriage was in the cards.

Also, Kid no longer had the high-top fade in this one, but rather dreadlocks. I know that he rocked dreads at times, especially in “Class Act,” but I guess because of the timeframe, it was to give it a different feel. As a matter of fact, I know that this was at a time when already had “The Chronic” come out (a song from that iconic album was in this movie, too), as well as “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)” and many other notable hip-hop classics from that era. So both Kid and Play were rocking the baseball caps and sports jackets. However, I wondered about Kid in some scenes. Did he have a hole broken in some of his caps so that the dreads can be shown? I noticed Play wore something similar, and it wasn’t like one of those visors, either (Personally, I was never one to wear those types of headwear; not my style). Even as someone who lived through 1993, I don’t recall seeing those types of hats myself.

It did deliver on the comedy aspect this time. Bernie Mac stole every scene he was in. Plus, it seems like the producers got different comedians this time. You had Michael Colyar, who played the main antagonist Showboat. You had Eddie Griffin and Joe Torry in uncredited roles. Hell, you even had the late Reynaldo Rey and the late Simply Marvelous as Veda’s parents. The way they worked with Bernie Mac in the dinner scene, I have to say that was one of the funniest parts of the movie.

I must add that Chris Tucker’s only scene was another plus in this film. It was only a year until “Friday” came out, and this scene showed his comedic genius.

However, I did have some issues with some of the humor. While the movie was funny, especially in the climax with the bachelor party being a bust, Immature puts on a better bash at the house (I wonder if that was the intention given the title). Not to mention the senile aunt watching an adult film and tapes being swapped with “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and the guys at the bachelor party watching that film instead. I thought the aunt was funny in some scenes, and I will admit that her watching porn got a chuckle out of me, but man, I remembered seeing how only so few frames and clips were used in the TV version. But then you had some jokes about Play’s cousin Stinky (David Edwards) being a chubby chaser and hiring a plus-sized stripper, which got a chuckle out of me, but not so much with a transvestite stripper, which was clearly a woman but was dubbed with a man’s voice. Even when I first saw this way back when, I was like “Really? Come on.”

But really, with the different feel that this film had compared to the second film, I think it was still a funnier film, but I also think in some ways, there were some missed opportunities. There could have been more character development for Play, who was still a womanizer and pretended to give women opportunities in the music industry so that he could sleep with them. It also felt like it was teased in one scene with him and Janelle talking and while Janelle made valid points about him, I felt some tension and it was implied that they would hook up later in the film, but it didn’t happen. As noted before, I can understand why Kid and Sidney didn’t marry, even though part of my headcanon likes to pretend otherwise. I wonder what happened to some of the other characters. I know Martin Lawrence didn’t return because he had his show, but Bilal was never mentioned. Could he have gotten a better opportunity as a DJ elsewhere? What happened to Jamal from the second film? Was he still trying to be a part of the Black Power Movement, or given the timeframe, trying to act gangsta in spite of being white? Hell, what happened to Sharane from the first film? She didn’t return for the second film, but I could only guess that she either didn’t go to college or didn’t go to the same college. It would have been interesting to see A.J. Johnson (as in Adrienne-Joi Johnson) return in this one and maybe hook up with Play again. I must note that the other A.J. Johnson (as in Anthony Johnson; RIP) appeared in the first film and this one. First he gets roasted by Robin Harris, and then he appears as an ex-con running a catering business.

I still enjoyed the film. It was a nice way to cap off the trilogy, but of course, a few more films came after that. Personally, I have only seen one of them, and I am very reluctant to revisit it. I never saw the other two, but I heard one is better than the fourth but not by much. Then there is a reboot that I recalled seeing trailers for. As much as I don’t want to revisit the fourth film, I may do that just for this. I am also curious about the fifth and the reboot. But I think I should take a minor break and talk about the one film I have wanted to touch on for a while. It has nothing to do with “House Party,” but it’s definitely a Kid ‘N Play film.

NEXT UP: Class Act