Blockers - Movie Review

Even though my A-List subscription allows me to see three free movies per week, I chose to avoid Blockers because it looked ridiculous to me. It is currently airing free on HBO. I was bored last night, so I watched this film anyway. My decision not to see it at the theater was a reaffirmed.

The premise of Blockers is fairly simple. Three friends, Julie (Kathryn Newton), Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan) and Sam (Gideon Adlon) make a prom night pact to lose their virginity. Their parents, helicopter mom Lisa (Leslie Mann), Mitchell (John Cena) and Hunter (Ike Barinholtz) discover their plans and set out on a mission to stop them. Prom night bounces from place to place as the frustrated parents engage in bad behavior in their attempt to thwart their daughters' plans.

Blockers relies on vulgarity, sight gags and sophomoric humor to eke out some cheap laughs. I really didn't laugh much. The film was more disgusting than it was funny. I'm not sure this film really had much potential to begin with. The premise is fairly thin, with little opportunity to develop characters or engage the audience. Writers Brian and Jim Kehoe don't have much writing experience. And it shows. There wasn't much to like about the writing. The narrative arc was fairly flat, the characters were not engaging, the dialogue was weak and hackneyed, the gags were predictable and often vulgar and the concept ill conceived. There was not much here for the cast to work with.

The writing and casting certainly weren't designed for any awards shows. The cast is pretty much a B-List (or C-List) cast. John Cena has been getting quite a bit of work in the movies, but I wouldn't consider him to be an A-lister. I haven't seen many of the films Leslie Mann has been in, although I am looking forward to seeing her teamed up again with Steve Carell in Welcome to Marwen later this week (they were also both in The 40-Year-Old Virgin). Barinholtz was more a television series guy than a film actor. That has changed in recent years. I liked him in The Mindy Project. He is best in comic roles. This was just a poor choice. I like him and hope he continues to have a good career. This film wasn't going to draw an exceptional cast, so it is not surprising that it is filled with actors and actresses who have little name recognition. They didn't have much to work with.

Blockers is rated R. A very easy determination for the MPAA. In case you missed it, this film is vulgar. Vulgar isn't really funny to me. Situational comedy makes me laugh at times, but not when it is contrived and purposefully disgusting. The film includes plenty of crude language, sexuality, adult themes, teen sexuality, drug content, alcohol and nudity. It is not a film for anyone younger than teens (mid-teens at that). The film has little in the way of redeeming qualities, so I would probably not allow children of any age to see this film. The film has a run time of one hour, 42 minutes.

I am glad I didn't waste my time going to watch this film at the theaters. Blockers is a crude mess with little value. The writing is contrived and flat. The forced scenarios felt tedious and unrewarding. The casting was decent for a film with no A-listers, but the cast had nothing to work with. This film was just poorly conceived and equally executed. Execution. There is a good idea. Someone should have killed this film before it ever saw the light of day. Unfortunately, it is out there. My recommendation is to pass it over for something even mildly interesting. 4/10.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2531344/videoplayer/vi334542873

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