Movies & TV / Reviews
Blockers Review
Loading...
Directed By: Kay Cannon
Written By: Brian Kehoe and Jim Kehoe
Runtime: 102 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated R for crude and sexual content, and language throughout, drug content, teen partying, and some graphic nudity
Leslie Mann – Lisa
John Cena – Mitchell
Ike Barinholtz – Hunter
Kathryn Newton – Julie
Geraldine Viswanathan – Kayla
Gideon Adlon – Sam
Jimmy Bellinger – Chad
Ramona Young – Angelica
Sarayu Blue – Marcie
Miles Robbins – Connor
Graham Phillips – Austin
Gary Cole – Ron
Gina Gershon – Cathy
Pitch Perfect franchise writer and producer Kay Cannon makes her directorial debut with the new raunchy, R-rated comedy, Blockers. Essentially, Blockers is a teen sex comedy set mostly from the perspective of the parents of said teens, in this case single mom Lisa (Mann), the over-protective and doting alpha-dad Mitchell (WWE Superstar Cena) and the borderline deadbeat, absentee single dad Hunter (Barinholtz). After unwittingly learning that each of the parents’ respective daughters are looking to fulfill a sex pact and lose their virginities on prom night, the trio bands together to put a stop to it and “block” their kids from having sex.
While Blockers is painfully predictable, it’s not completely terrible. The film does provide one or two chuckles throughout. It’s not particularly hilarious or outrageous. In terms of comedic gags, set-pieces, jokes or pratfalls, it doesn’t really have anything you haven’t seen before. That is unless you were jonesing to see John Cena get tricked into chugging beer through his posterior.
The plot is very familiar to fare such as Superbad. It’s very much a sex comedy. It features teens who are ending their high school years. They are embarking on the next chapters of their lives. They have anxiety about their bonds of friendship and what comes next. However, it lacks the stronger grasp of comedy and more charismatic leads and characters of that film.
With Blockers, there’s more of a female perspective, since the daughters all have their own story arcs which get significant screen time. However, this admittedly fresh perspective for such a film, is more or less undercut by focusing on the rather underwhelming parental characters. Mitchell, Lisa and Hunter are all blindsided by their daughters becoming adults and attempting to discover their sexuality with the men in their lives. Well, it seems that’s less the case with Hunter, who is fully aware of his daughter’s preference toward the opposite sex, but he gets caught up in Mitchell and Lisa’s scheme out of fear that his daughter will sleep with her male prom date, Chad (Bellinger), to uphold the pact.
Blockers is decently serviceable. But it’s mainly a series of somewhat amusing, episodic skits of the parents getting into mischief as they seek to discover their daughters whereabouts to stop them. Barinholtz is pretty much the same character he portrayed in the Neighbors films. John Cena is somewhat convincing as a nice, yet overly protective single father. The movie overdoes it with his jock, sportsman angle. He’s big and has muscles, so of course he equates everything in sports terms. And you have to talk to him like they are playing in some sort of football game.
The actors who portray the daughters, the outgoing Julie (Newton), the tomboyish Kayla (Viswanathan) and the bookish Sam (Adlon), all come off as strong performers. However, most of their dialogue and scenes leave a lot to be desired. Blockers comes off like a movie that should’ve focused on this trio rather than the parents. A good chunk of the movie is given to focus on these characters, but none of their dialogue or rapport plays as very natural. It seems like the writers struggled to write more realistic dialogue for teenage females.
The main relationship appears to be that of Julie and her mother Lisa, who have always been best friends. But now Lisa is having trouble coping with Lisa growing up and moving off on her own to college. Julie gets into her college of choice, UCLA, which would be half a country away. The messages and themes of Blockers are strong, they are just packaged in such a perfunctory and pedestrian fashion that’s sort of boring. Even the film’s final act is boring and uneventful. There’s very little in the way of actual tension or comedic suspense.
The film has its moments. The funniest scenes involve the parents getting mixed up with the kinky activities with the sexually open-minded parents of Julie’s boyfriend, Austin (Phillips). That set of parents, Ron and Cathy, is played by the always awesome Gary Cole and Gina Gershon. There’s actually one throwaway line in the film that suggests Julie possibly should be a little leery about dating Austin, but unfortunately that suggestion goes nowhere.
Blockers is a comedy that’s fairly inoffensive and worth a couple chuckles at best. At worst, it’s awfully predictable and not very funny. However, it’s still not good enough to earn a strong recommendation.
