Ok, so I only gave it 5 stars because of the ending. I wasn't expecting it at all. Anyway, I'm so confused.... so if the kids weren't drinking her alcohol, I promise they would have brought their own. Or just drank at another party. It was also the teenagers choice to drive. That whole court scene would NEVER happen. She would NEVER be sitting between two men. There would be a lawyer present somewhere and the victim trying to determine bail. No. I actually laughed out loud when the mother said to the judge "she's just going to give alcohol to minors again, she's a danger to our community!" The acting was awful. Especially Brittany's mother and sister. Watch it for the ending!!
11 Reviews
Had Potential But Very Disappointing
gerard-457977 July 2018
Warning: Spoilers
I thought this movie would be about the slow downfall of the "Party Mom", but instead they didn't develop her character at all and never explained why she became the way she was and rushed right to it.. They pretty much just jumped right into her having a party where some kid almost drowns and then right to the next party where 3 people die in a drunken driving incident after leaving. Then a quickie trial where she's found not guilty, then the murder of her daughter as retribution and her attack on the guy's wife she thought did it. What a complete mess. The premise was interesting and if they just focused on her gradual dissent into alcoholism with it all coming apart at the end when her irresponsible actions result in a single tragic ending, much like the wonderful 1974 TV movie "The Morning After" with Dick Van Dyke, it could have been a very good film. But alas, I forgot that this was a Lifetime movie where clichés abound, the focus is on sensational shock value, and the endings are almost always nonsensical.
Plotholes big enough to drive a 30-minute episode of "ALF" through
MyFriendsCallMeDirt19 September 2018
Krista Allen is fantastic as the "party mom", but it's not enough to save this one. The story idea was really good, but the presentation was not. The whole thing seems too hastily put together, and there are a few plotholes big enough to drive a 30 minute episode of ALF through. Some key parts of the cast seemed pretty much asleep. My standards for made-for-TV fare aren't that high, and this one still doesn't make the cut. 2/10
Plot is crap
jkenyatta340014 January 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Jackie sells alcohol to some kids. Four of them get into a car accident and only one survives. The survivor, Brittany, is a friend of Jackie's daughter, Ashley. Meanwhile, Jackie is arrested, but somehow gets off scot free in court. I'm just gonna get to the part where the plot starts.
A masked intruder, implied to be one of the dead kids' parents, breaks into Jackie's home and kills Ashley in revenge. Kill the woman's daughter. Because that'll definitely bring your own child back, right? Anyways, Gary, who was snooping around Jackie's house for some reason, enters the home and finds Ashley dead. The cops come and arrest him because they think he killed her.
The next day, the Thompsons find out who the real killer is. It was indeed one of the dead kids' parents; Sasha's father to be exact. Gary is released from jail, but guess what happens to the Sasha's father? Nothing! So Jackie goes over to Brittany's house to kill Gary, not knowing he's innocent, and runs into Caroline, Brittany's mother, who doesn't even bother telling her who the real killer is, but instead decides to scold her for selling alcohol to minors. Yeah, instead of telling a grieving mother who her daughter's killer really is, she decides to antagonize her. This of course leads to Jackie pulling a gun (close to Caroline who tries to disarm her). Gary comes in, takes the gun, and punches Jackie in the face.
We're treated to the usual Lifetime epilogue that shows the hero living their best life, with the villain rotting in prison. Yes, Jackie is shown in her cell crying and asking to be released. What a horrible ending, even for a "villainess". Jackie didn't even get a chance to bury her daughter. The worst part is that the movie makes it seem like Ashley deserved to be murdered to teach Jackie a lesson. 2/10
A masked intruder, implied to be one of the dead kids' parents, breaks into Jackie's home and kills Ashley in revenge. Kill the woman's daughter. Because that'll definitely bring your own child back, right? Anyways, Gary, who was snooping around Jackie's house for some reason, enters the home and finds Ashley dead. The cops come and arrest him because they think he killed her.
The next day, the Thompsons find out who the real killer is. It was indeed one of the dead kids' parents; Sasha's father to be exact. Gary is released from jail, but guess what happens to the Sasha's father? Nothing! So Jackie goes over to Brittany's house to kill Gary, not knowing he's innocent, and runs into Caroline, Brittany's mother, who doesn't even bother telling her who the real killer is, but instead decides to scold her for selling alcohol to minors. Yeah, instead of telling a grieving mother who her daughter's killer really is, she decides to antagonize her. This of course leads to Jackie pulling a gun (close to Caroline who tries to disarm her). Gary comes in, takes the gun, and punches Jackie in the face.
We're treated to the usual Lifetime epilogue that shows the hero living their best life, with the villain rotting in prison. Yes, Jackie is shown in her cell crying and asking to be released. What a horrible ending, even for a "villainess". Jackie didn't even get a chance to bury her daughter. The worst part is that the movie makes it seem like Ashley deserved to be murdered to teach Jackie a lesson. 2/10
A well deserved lesson for a stupid brat
haroot_azarian22 March 2021
Warning: Spoilers
A hard lesson for stupid teenagers trying to fit in with peers with whom they have nothing in common! And yes getting scott free for three manslaughter charges was ridiculous!
Just to add a couple of more things. That lowlife child molester Travis didn't seem to understand the word NO! Perhaps he deserved his fate.
And finally it was a head on collision. It's funny the people in the other car involved are not mentioned even once? Did they survive the crash and just walked away? Or did aliens beam them up? A few people mentioned plot holes. I tend to agree!
Just to add a couple of more things. That lowlife child molester Travis didn't seem to understand the word NO! Perhaps he deserved his fate.
And finally it was a head on collision. It's funny the people in the other car involved are not mentioned even once? Did they survive the crash and just walked away? Or did aliens beam them up? A few people mentioned plot holes. I tend to agree!
Not terrible
bt698nhj14 March 2023
Not a terrible Lifetime Movie for Chicks. As always, the fun is in the faux pas and errata. Here we go:
1. Ashley speaking about Brittany: "I just saw Ashley..." Hey dummy, YOU are Ashley!!! How did no one catch this? Not the character playing Ashley or anybody else in the scene or affiliated with the movie?!?!?
2. Parents find that teenage daughter is missing from bed when she was supposed to have been asleep. "We gotta go find her!" No call, no text first????? Come on.
3. Cops show up at party mom's home and immediately arrest the party mom outside for serving underage alcohol to minors. No questioning, no looking through the premises, no nothing. Did not even go inside the house! Ridiculous.
4. Cops show up 1 minute after someone's killed at a residential home. No one even called 911! But these cops apparently have ESP and know just when and where a crime has been committed. The justice system is still broken in LA but the cops are johnny on the spot!
5. Car heard in the distance (but not visible) outside residential home. For no reason, mom tells her daughter to go upstairs and lock the door. And what do you know, it's a threatening person coming to the home! Mom has ESP!
1. Ashley speaking about Brittany: "I just saw Ashley..." Hey dummy, YOU are Ashley!!! How did no one catch this? Not the character playing Ashley or anybody else in the scene or affiliated with the movie?!?!?
2. Parents find that teenage daughter is missing from bed when she was supposed to have been asleep. "We gotta go find her!" No call, no text first????? Come on.
3. Cops show up at party mom's home and immediately arrest the party mom outside for serving underage alcohol to minors. No questioning, no looking through the premises, no nothing. Did not even go inside the house! Ridiculous.
4. Cops show up 1 minute after someone's killed at a residential home. No one even called 911! But these cops apparently have ESP and know just when and where a crime has been committed. The justice system is still broken in LA but the cops are johnny on the spot!
5. Car heard in the distance (but not visible) outside residential home. For no reason, mom tells her daughter to go upstairs and lock the door. And what do you know, it's a threatening person coming to the home! Mom has ESP!
Tragedy in Beverly Hills
lavatch12 January 2021
Warning: Spoilers
"Party Mom" begins as if it were a comedy about social class and snobbery in Beverly Hills compared to the San Fernando Valley. But at the midpoint, the film switches gears from "Valley Girl" into a full-blown shattering tragedy. At the heart of film is the "party mom," Jackie Anderson, who is responsible for the deaths of three young people and, indirectly, for the death of her own daughter.
The performances were first-rate as the dichotomy was established between the family values of Brittany, her mom Caroline, her dad Gary, an her little sister Emma that are juxtaposed with the alcoholic Jackie, swimming in money and booze.
The first shocking moment of the film was the car crash that took the lives of three of the teenagers who became intoxicated at the party at Jackie's home. Brittany was thrown from the vehicle and survived. Perhaps just as shocking was the "not guilty" verdict rendered by a jury in Jackie's trial.
One of the most interesting characters in the film was Ashley Anderson, the practical and wise young woman who recognizes the gravity of her mother's illness but is helpless to do anything. The saddest moment in the film was the taking of Ashley's life by one of the distraught parents.
The filmmakers tried to walk a tightrope in cinematic styles. While the situations were over the top, the cast nonetheless deserves credit for searching for the truth in their characters and ultimately realizing an unforgettable tragedy in Beverly Hills.
The performances were first-rate as the dichotomy was established between the family values of Brittany, her mom Caroline, her dad Gary, an her little sister Emma that are juxtaposed with the alcoholic Jackie, swimming in money and booze.
The first shocking moment of the film was the car crash that took the lives of three of the teenagers who became intoxicated at the party at Jackie's home. Brittany was thrown from the vehicle and survived. Perhaps just as shocking was the "not guilty" verdict rendered by a jury in Jackie's trial.
One of the most interesting characters in the film was Ashley Anderson, the practical and wise young woman who recognizes the gravity of her mother's illness but is helpless to do anything. The saddest moment in the film was the taking of Ashley's life by one of the distraught parents.
The filmmakers tried to walk a tightrope in cinematic styles. While the situations were over the top, the cast nonetheless deserves credit for searching for the truth in their characters and ultimately realizing an unforgettable tragedy in Beverly Hills.
Ambitious but unsatisfying
marcusman4826 June 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Perhaps it's unfair of me to be so judgmental - even though I usually enjoy them - of the movies shown on the Lifetime Movie Network. The channel cranks these out like professional wrestling matches, so there's inevitably going to be a focus on quantity at the expense of quality. That said, PARTY MOM had the chance to be very interesting viewing, and it mostly failed.
I have to admit, I'm a sucker for movies of this type. I remember really liking the masterful BAD TO THE BONE, which was admittedly not a Lifetime original but was aired on LMN eventually, and which was kind of a combination of the 1944 film-noir classic DOUBLE INDEMNITY and the trashy B-movie series POISON IVY. And FATAL LESSONS: THE GOOD TEACHER was fun, even though Erika Eleniak's character was a completely implausible comic-book supervillain. At their best, these TV movies remind me of the famous "pre-Code" crime thrillers of the early 1930s, which showed gangsters and gold diggers causing all kinds of trouble before eventually suffering some sort of comeuppance. But PARTY MOM was the wrong kind of story for the made-for-TV format, and could have been done much better as a plot thread in a first-rate soap opera. But it never had much of a chance of being an excellent neo-noir crime drama.
Most disappointing of all is the fact that, despite having the name of the "villain" in the title, PARTY MOM is not a CRUELLA-like faux biopic but just another "suburban-family-in-peril" melodrama of the sort we've seen since around the 1950s, which was lame back then and is even lamer now. The beautiful Krista Allen is a scandalous delight as the narcissistic and hedonistic bimbo mother, but we see very little of her throughout the first half of the film. Instead, we have to content ourselves with a number of stereotyped characters, including two strict but loving parents and their naive, semi-rebellious teen daughter. You can see many of the plot points coming from several football fields away. You just know that the daughter is going to sneak away to the party after her parents forbid her to go. It's no surprise when the inebriated teen driver who claims he's "only a little drunk" crashes his car and is killed instantly. And so on.
And when we do get to see Jackie (the bimbo mom), she's intriguing at first...but ultimately a letdown. I didn't expect Jackie to be a master criminal, but they could at least portrayed her as an impulsive maniac. Instead, Jackie turns out to be such a pathetically childish hot mess that she makes Harley Quinn look like a genius. She's funny, and a self-serving weasel, but all of it just doesn't add up. Even worse, the screenplay expects us to actually feel sorry for her, then gives her the standard humiliating villain comeuppance at the end. We're supposed to be happy to see her throwing a whiny tantrum in jail, but because she's been little more than a plot device and a target for contemptuous pity, the ending falls flat. It's not humorous and it brings no satisfaction - and it's a very dark ending when you figure that Jackie is either going to kill herself out of despair or be murdered by one of the other prisoners for being such a nuisance. All in all, faulty characterization and bad writing is what we're left with.
So I advise skipping this one, unless you really adore Krista Allen (who doesn't quite cut it for me personally). Or if you enjoy seeing an "all-American family" triumphing over adversity, even though they're a pack of fools.
I have to admit, I'm a sucker for movies of this type. I remember really liking the masterful BAD TO THE BONE, which was admittedly not a Lifetime original but was aired on LMN eventually, and which was kind of a combination of the 1944 film-noir classic DOUBLE INDEMNITY and the trashy B-movie series POISON IVY. And FATAL LESSONS: THE GOOD TEACHER was fun, even though Erika Eleniak's character was a completely implausible comic-book supervillain. At their best, these TV movies remind me of the famous "pre-Code" crime thrillers of the early 1930s, which showed gangsters and gold diggers causing all kinds of trouble before eventually suffering some sort of comeuppance. But PARTY MOM was the wrong kind of story for the made-for-TV format, and could have been done much better as a plot thread in a first-rate soap opera. But it never had much of a chance of being an excellent neo-noir crime drama.
Most disappointing of all is the fact that, despite having the name of the "villain" in the title, PARTY MOM is not a CRUELLA-like faux biopic but just another "suburban-family-in-peril" melodrama of the sort we've seen since around the 1950s, which was lame back then and is even lamer now. The beautiful Krista Allen is a scandalous delight as the narcissistic and hedonistic bimbo mother, but we see very little of her throughout the first half of the film. Instead, we have to content ourselves with a number of stereotyped characters, including two strict but loving parents and their naive, semi-rebellious teen daughter. You can see many of the plot points coming from several football fields away. You just know that the daughter is going to sneak away to the party after her parents forbid her to go. It's no surprise when the inebriated teen driver who claims he's "only a little drunk" crashes his car and is killed instantly. And so on.
And when we do get to see Jackie (the bimbo mom), she's intriguing at first...but ultimately a letdown. I didn't expect Jackie to be a master criminal, but they could at least portrayed her as an impulsive maniac. Instead, Jackie turns out to be such a pathetically childish hot mess that she makes Harley Quinn look like a genius. She's funny, and a self-serving weasel, but all of it just doesn't add up. Even worse, the screenplay expects us to actually feel sorry for her, then gives her the standard humiliating villain comeuppance at the end. We're supposed to be happy to see her throwing a whiny tantrum in jail, but because she's been little more than a plot device and a target for contemptuous pity, the ending falls flat. It's not humorous and it brings no satisfaction - and it's a very dark ending when you figure that Jackie is either going to kill herself out of despair or be murdered by one of the other prisoners for being such a nuisance. All in all, faulty characterization and bad writing is what we're left with.
So I advise skipping this one, unless you really adore Krista Allen (who doesn't quite cut it for me personally). Or if you enjoy seeing an "all-American family" triumphing over adversity, even though they're a pack of fools.
Missed opportunity
JayHysterio8 April 2022
Krista Allen is amazing
phd_travel11 June 2018
Warning: Spoilers
This is better than the title would suggest. It's more than just a warning about drunk driving and teen partying. The title character is very convincingly played by the beautiful Krista Allen who does the irresponsible mom perfectly. Watch this.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
