Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

csauer I watched this movie waiting to see a plot. There isn't any. They live together, go to bed together, party together and then they move out to cities all over the country. Din't care for Sandy in this one. What's with the F word anyway. She uses it in such an unsuitable way right out of the get-go over who ate her breakfast cereal. If that was to impress, I was't. This movie just wasn't good. It wasn't funny, it wasn't dramatic, it was about a few kids who were spoiled brats. Shoud I go to high school? Should I not? I will watch this one more time as I always do to see what I missed the first time around. So many times the second time viewed it's better. In this case I think I will dislike it more than the fist time.

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!

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.

riky A powerful and intimate look at success, friendship and sex in the 90's, 3 girls and two boys living together in an up market LA house, you see into their lives as a fly on the wall sort of film. MJ uses her looks and charm to manipulates everybody, even her house mates. but happens when the party's over?? Not one of Sandra Better films, but you have to start somewhere!.