McCarthy is in her element as a wacky Midwestern mom in this riff on Rodney Dangerfield's "Back to School," but the comedy never finds its groove; [it] is proof that even the funniest actors need good material
Life of the Party is stubbornly nice. What a surprise. Too often, McCarthy's been typecast as the butt of the joke, even when her husband’s behind the camera and she's co-written the script (as she also does here)
bland and predictable; It's too bad that comic masters like McCarthy and Rudolph had to do a rescue job on their roles in this disappointing muddle of a film