Spoonatects
Am i the only one who thinks........Average?
AutCuddly
Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,
Geraldine
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
vitachiel
Good movie, easy to follow, but enough depth to stay focused. There's no clearly outlined story here, just a glimpse of the life of a group of friends finding their way in a big and individualistic world. The characters are believable, and the sketch of the absurdity of Hollywood wannabee life is entertaining and over the right top. Bullock is OK, but I cannot see real exquisite marvel in her eyes. Chong and Berridge are very good and the parts of Mr. Midnight and the little brother serve as welcome optimistic counter figures.All in all this movie can be seen as a high-quality soap opera in that it manages to plant an entire season's drama in just 110 minutes and the emotional perceptions are almost authentic. To top that we receive some profound glances of the whims and fancies of human personality and the attitude on life.
miken-3
Other than seeing a young Sandra Bullock looking cute in a film that was made before she was a star, there is not a lot of positive things I can say. Several young people share an apartment, joined together by Rae Dawn Chong's character, MJ (that in itself should be a tipoff because I cannot remember a Chong movie post-Commando). Tensions mount at the big party and MJ's self-destructive personality causes the friends to break up when the party ends including a couple that just got engaged during the party.There are some uncomfortable scenes such as when Bullock's 16 year old brother jumps into bed with MJ and says that she will be the one to "deflower" him and then immediately falls asleep. Basically, the movie had the same effect on me!
Mitiori
I didn't come out of watching this movie very satisfied. Nor did I feel I wasted time. It was an interesting few hours spent looking into the lives of these characters. They were not well-developed, or necessarily consistent. Personally, I think the story would have been better off starting where the movie ended. There were late night chats that seemed to be thrown in for effect, but did not necessarily have continuity with the day's events. All-in-all, if you're a fan of Sandra Bullock or Fischer Stevens and like seeing actors early in their careers (or in some cases, the height) it's a relaxing, non-challenging way to spend time. Worth a watch if nothing else on and you don't want to clean the house or think too hard.
jack_94706
Yes, this is an ensemble piece, and a "year in the life of" type of film -- but a fine example of what can be accomplished in this area, for those who appreciate these works. Bullock does act well here -- she's not especially likeable, for several reasons -- but she's believable, and it's one of a handful of roles she's done exceptionally well. Fisher Stevens steals this show, however. And how! He's an entirely winning character -- among a bunch of twenty-somethings who haven't quite figured themselves out, let alone what they want or what makes living worth all the fuss. Many of them are interesting or quite appealing, all the same. Without Stevens setting the counterpoint, a person who wins at life whether he gets what he wants or not, someone who doesn't decide ahead of time what's supposed to happen and how people are supposed to respond to him -- without him in this role, it would be just another story of searching and/or alienation. Not that there haven't been some fine films of just that sort, but this is something more. "When the Party's Over" stands up well alongside such films as "Bob & Ted & Carol & Alice" and the Australian film "Bob's Party" (if I'm remembering the latter's title correctly here). Those films are superficially more entertaining, clearly more commercial, even more conventional -- and more about actual parties and sexual games than this one. But all of them share the same group spirit. In the long run, a decade or more later, it is Fisher Stevens' role as Alexander which lives on in my mind and heart more than any of the others. Nor will I forget Bullock or Rae Dawn Chong and their characters in this film. The story builds slowly, doesn't go where you expect it to or hope it will, but rewards those who are patient and observant.
