Life of the Party is a comedy revolving around a mother who ends up going to the same college as her daughter. After dropping off her daughter at the same college that she attended awhile back but never got the chance to finish, Deanna soon discovers that her husband is in love with someone else and wants to get a divorce. Because Deanna doesn't really know what to do next, since they had been together since college, she is in a bit of a stump. As a way for her to finally turn her life around and do something she had always wanted to do, Deanna soon finds herself going back to college in an attempt to finally finish her degree. However, this means that she is attending the same college that her daughter is. Although her daughter is far from being thrilled at first, her mind starts to change as her mom starts to truly embrace college life. Deanna starts to really plunge into the entire college experience as she starts to rediscover who she actually is and wants to be, and in the process, she has the time of her life as she goes to parties and has all the freedom and fun that she wants to have. 
 Life of the Party proves to be a somewhat charming comedy that doesn't have the greatest plot but does know how to generate some laughs. The beginning of the movie does a brilliant job of jump starting the entire movie and is able to really get to the point quickly without including any excessive scenes. The middle of the movie does a marvelous job of progressing things along and showing how Deanna begins to adjust to college life once more in an entertaining manner that is sure to please. However, the ending of the movie isn't the greatest and feels too predictable and seems to really not add that much to the rest of the film. But the actual conclusion of the movie is somewhat heartwarming and is definitely enjoyable to watch. The movie greatly benefits from having an intriguing twist that seems to make the movie substantially more interesting. 

 Life of the Party is a comedy, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the movie has plenty of hilarious scenes. One of them is Deanna playing racquetball with her best friend and accidentally hitting her friend. Another fantastic scene is when Deanna is at her first college party and is just trying to adjust to life, because the character really seems to stand out and look like a fish out of water. Also, the entire relationship between Deanna and her ex-husband's new girlfriend is shear gold. 

 Even though certain parts of Life of the Party feel a little too predictable and don't seem to add that much to the actual story of the movie, the comedy is still able to greatly benefit from a tremendous performance from the incredibly talented Melissa McCarthy. She does a fabulous job of playing Deanna and is really able to transform into a character who feels emotionally lost and needs to reset her entire life. Regardless of what she is saying, Melissa constantly ensures that there is at least some liveliness occurring on screen. Without her superb acting and comedy skills, the movie would probably just fall into the trap of just being another not thought through, dumb comedy, but luckily for the Life of the Party, this is simply not the case. 

 Although Life of the Party is able to be enjoyed by viewers, critics seem to really not be fans of the movie. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a poor 37%, which is actually a pretty terrible mark. However, a somewhat solid 82% of Google users liked the movie, which is a fairly decent score. Even though critics didn't seem to like the movie, this shouldn't have the biggest effect on potential viewers, since critics are known to be generally harsher with comedies like this one.
 Although Life of the Party isn't the most original or creative comedy out there, it is still worth watching for just Melissa McCarthy's spectacular performance where she truly becomes the life of the party.