‘Life of the Party’ Review: Melissa McCarthy Goes Back to College in a Flat Comedy That Won’t Make the Grade

In the school of bad movie titles, “Life of the Party” wouldn’t even make the waitlist.

But it does feel a bit lazy for a movie about a middle-aged woman going back to college not to attempt some sort of school pun, given how easy it was for this reviewer to do so.

(Albeit not a very good one).

And while Melissa McCarthy certainly is the life of the party in everything she’s ever done, the phrase conjures up the opening lines of Smokey Robinson’s “Tracks of My Tears”— a melancholic melody to associate with your blockbuster comedy.

There won’t be any tracks of tears, laughter or otherwise, from “Life of the Party.” Even a rockstar cast can’t make these jokes sing, and Christina Aguilera is in this movie.We open on a familiar scene: Parents dropping their daughter off for the first day of college of her senior year.

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