Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures Project X came out this weekend and promises to present the most epic house party of all time (or as the tagline reads, "the party you've only dreamed about"). I can't say I agree with that grandiose statement. As a self-proclaimed teen comedy connoisseur, I've seen my fair share of happening on-screen super soirees, some of which I doubt could ever be topped.
In honor of Project X, let's get our party on and count down the Top 5 movie house parties we would do five keg stands to crash ...
5) THE LAMBDA LAMBDA LAMBDA PLEDGE PARTY (Revenge of the Nerds)
If this is what "nerding out," really means, count us way in!
This party, meant to celebrate the launch of a no-jock-straps-allowed fraternity, started off incredibly lame - no girls, non-racist music or spiked punch in sight. But it got better and better.
First, a bunch of nerdy sorority sisters (the Omega Mus) joined the fun. Then, someone lit up and passed around a few "wonder joints." Finally, someone cranked the full-length version of "Thriller." By the end of the night, more than a few geeks were exiting their bedrooms wearing plush red robes and smoking victory cigars and had participated in the most elusive panty raid in history.
4) BOGEY LOWENSTEIN'S WINE AND CHEESE PARTY (10 Things I Hate About You)
Once upon a teen Shakespearean remake, there was a chess club gathering set up to bring together brilliant minds and the finest brie. But that got thrown out the front window once Cameron and Michael (Joseph Gordon-Levitt and David Krumholtz), a pair of sensitive-yet-scheming sophomores caught wind of it.
They seized the opportunity to turn it into a wild keg party (cue that classic throwing-flyers-down-the-stairwell-to-Air scene) at which Cameron could finally awkwardly woo the young woman of his unrequited affection, Bianca Stratford (Alex Mack!), and their buddy Patrick (Heath Ledger at his stringy sexiest) could get her Bell Jar-obsessed, forcibly feminist sister, Kat (Julia Stiles), to jump on to a table and shake her white girl groove thang to "Hypnotize."
3) DELTA'S TOGA PARTY (Animal House)
Put your hands up and shout if you know and love this one!
This evening of debauchery, as dreamed up by the John Belushi's Bluto and the rest of the Delta dudes, was simple, yet oh-so-effective. It had every single one of its attendees rocking bed sheets and makeshift crowns, featured live performance from Otis Day and the Knight and resulted in many an awkward hook-up. It was deemed so crazy, the dean (John Vernon) shut the fraternity down the next day.
2) THE VAL(LEY) PARTY (Clueless)
Forget about the teen movie event that taught us what to do with our arms whilst "Rollin' with the Homies?" AS IF.
It's been 17 years since Clueless came out, and yet this Friday night function, which also included spontaneous head shaving (a guy's got to "keep it real," ya know), light-up snowmen and one hell of a red hot Alaia dress, makes nearly every other movie party seem like it sucks and blows. If you don't want to sneak out and at least make an appearance at this one, you must be totally buggin'.
1) THE WHOLE MOVIE (Can't Hardly Wait)
When Can't Hardly Wait was released back in 1998, it had a marketing scheme quite similar to that of Project X, promising an "event 18 years in the making."
Of course, they were referring to the fact that the movie followed Huntington High's graduation party, in which most attendees would have just turned 18. But having watched this movie at least 18 times, and finding a passion for it only some people only reserve for strawberry Pop-Tarts or Scott Baio, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the party within this party movie had been planned for two decades.
Featuring Seth Green in decorative ski goggles, a band called Loveburger (trust us - they're incredibly well done), a backpack-turned-love-kit, a slew of '90s icons (Melissa Joan Hart plays a yearbook-hawking cheerleader! Jennifer Love Hewitt is senior class ingenue, Amanda Beckett!), a gullible Swedish exchange student, a sideplot involving Barry Manilow and a stripper angel played by Dharma herself, Jenna Elfman, an infamously unseen hot tub and a Smash Mouth-filled soundtrack, Can't Hardly Wait toasts to every party movie cliche there is and even creates some of its own.
