Monday, July 23, 2018

Blockers [2018] Non-Spoiler Review

I didn't expect this movie to be good.  I was mostly right, but I will admit that I did find myself laughing at certain parts.  John Cena is great, his male co-star Ike Barinholtz gets a few good lines, and Leslie Mann is a mess.  Speaking of messes, so is the plot.  I'll do my best to avoid spoilers, but the general plot is that these three parents attempt to stop their respective daughters from fulfilling their prom night sex pact.  It's a similar premise to 1999's "American Pie", except the focus is primarily on the parents.  But then the movie tries to focus on the girls and make us care about what they're going through personally, but by the time the movie gets going, it forgot to establish the characters and make us care about them at the beginning of the movie.  You get sprinkles of information here and there as you go, but I never found myself caring about either set of characters.  The parents don't even like each other, so how is the audience supposed to like them or root for them?

There is some heart at parts especially towards the end of the film.  Sadly, when a certain parent's motivation is revealed, during that heartfelt moment, it falls on deaf ears and the scene is played for a comedic response.  It appears to be a common thing as many have griped about this same thing happening in recent Marvel movies.

I do not recommend this movie as it will be forgotten as quickly as other comedy related movies over the past few years.  If you do decide to give it a shot and go in with low expectations, you may be pleasantly surprised, but the movie couldn't really keep my attention.

Honorable mention:  Gideon Adlon, daughter of Pamela Adlon, gave the most believable performance