Randal Kleiser's "It's My Party" was one of the first movies to focus on AIDS patients dying with dignity. In this case, the protagonist holds a party so that he can see his family and acquaintances one last time before he goes. Every one of the characters has something to tell about this man. As expected, someone thinks that his sexual orientation came from "not getting raised properly".The country has obviously made a number of advancements in LGBT rights since the movie's release, but we still have a ways to go. In the meantime, I hope that movies like this help to remind people that AIDS victims aren't freaks of nature; they're humans. Not a masterpiece but still a good movie.Director Randal Kleiser is best known for "Grease". The cast includes Eric Roberts, Lee Grant, George Segal, Marlee Matlin, Margaret Cho, Roddy McDowall, Sally Kellerman, Bruce Davison, Olivia Newton-John and Cassandra Peterson (best known as Elvira).

Nick has AIDS and decides to end his life rather than suffer through the indignity of a long and tortured "natural" death.The viewer is then left to suffer through a long and tortured unnatural death of a thousand cuts inflicted by a cast of actors, most of whom play one dimensional characters phoning in their individual Hallmark moments.It's too bad that Hollywood seems to think that the AIDS/HIV epidemic is a money-making gift to them. This comes across more like a Noel Coward drawing room comedy or a really bad soap opera rather than anything to be taken seriously on any level. If anything it could be considered an insulting mockery of those who did face the trauma of finding themselves positive.

Please keep in mind that this is based on actual events...if you rent this, do yourself a favor and re-watch some scenes with the commentary turned ON. This is not "Hollywood" at its best or its worst, as some have said. Hollywood did not invent this story. Some of the drama was added for effect (some of the conflict, for example), but the events were based on the life (end of life) of Harry Stein. It is difficult to watch because of all of the conflicting emotions; the agonizing effort of the characters trying to be uplifting and funny in the face of devastation. It's was difficult for me because I know people in similar situations, so much of it was very realistic to me.

Masqueraring as a comedy when it clearly is not, Randall Kleiser's IT'S MY PARTY is a study in self-absorption and schmaltz that probably started with good intentions but became a mass of sweeping fragility swathed in pathos and cheap emotions. The premise is that a man, dying of AIDS, has decided to throw an all-out party where he will announce that he will commit suicide. An engaging extrovert, he displays the frenetic optimism precisely found in manic-depressives or people who tend to carry a load with stoic abandon until they no longer can carry it by themselves. Of course, this movie never bothers to truly dive in deep into Nick Stark's (Eric Roberts) psyche -- all we know is what we know and we're given some access into his past via flashbacks, but even then, they only serve as a point of reference, never as a true picture. And then, predictably, his ultimate decision, which is so ridiculous that I wondered if Nick wasn't really a woman pretending to be a man. Talk about a tragic heroine! At least Lee Remick has more to do as his mother, and oddly enough, the movie totally forgets about her and chooses instead to concentrate solely on the mechanics of the party, Nick's botched relationship with Brandon (Gregory Harrison) who left him when he learned of Nick's illness and has come to (maybe?) make amends, and scenes that spell Cute and Tender all the way. I didn't buy it then, I still don't buy it now, and I certainly can't recommend a movie where a gay man decides that the best way to go is with a bang, even at the expense of family members and close friends. That's the ultimate act of selfishness, even if this is only a story. There will be some sentimentalists out there who will weep their eyes out at the sole mention of this pile of dreck, but not me.