Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: Blockers
July 2, 2018
Blockers - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack
Blockers is a teenage sex comedy with two main differences. Firstly, the teens trying to lose their virginity are girls, not boys. Secondly, the main characters are their parents, who are trying to stop them. Can these two changes revive a tired genre? Or is there only so much you can do with this type of film?
The film begins in the past on the first day of kindergarten. Three girls, Julie, Kayla, and Sam, meet and become friends right away. Their three parents, Lisa, Mitchell, and Hunter, quickly realize that if their respective daughters are going to be friends, they should also be friends. It doesn’t really last with the adults.
Flash forward to the present day when Julie, Kayla, and Sam are high school seniors and are getting ready to graduate, and more importantly, it’s Prom Night and they want to lose their virginity. Well, two of them do. Sam’s not all that interested. The kids are excited, but the parents are not taking it very well, and this is before they learn of the virginity pact. Lisa is a single parent, so when Julie goes to college, she’s going to be an empty-nester. Kayla’s been a star on the soccer team since she was 12 and has always been a bit tomboy in that regard, so her growing into a woman is upsetting Mitchell, although his wife, Marcie, is a lot more understanding. Only Hunter isn’t over protective of his daughter, mainly because of the divorce, so he doesn’t see her much. Her mother, Brenda, and her step-father, Frank, try and help her through this time. They try. They also give mixed signals, as her mom says she will never see her high school friends again, so don’t worry about it. Frank is still friends with his high school friends, because they share a common experience. With that, Sam is in with the Virginity Pact.
While the kids are getting ready for prom, Hunter shows up. He embarrasses Sam and horrifies Lisa and Mitchell, who haven’t talked to him since he cheated on his wife and got a divorce. After they depart, while Lisa and Mitchell are cleaning up, they hear Julie’s laptop beeping with new messages. Julie was using her laptop to send messages and forgot to turn it off before leaving, so Lisa, Mitchell, and soon Hunter are looking at the messages between the three girls. Lisa and Mitchell have trouble decoding the emojis, but Hunter quickly realizes they made a sex pact. Lisa and Mitchell freak out, while Hunter is just happy he was able to figure it out quickly and tries to speak sense to the other two. It doesn’t work and soon all three of them are off.
That’s enough of the setup to understand where the film is going, while how it plays out is spoiler territory.
I’m of two minds when it comes to Blockers. On the one hand, it does fall for many of the same traps as the average Teenage Sex Comedy / R-rated Comedy. For example, the infamous butt-chugging scene is raunchy without adding anything else to the movie. These scenes drag the movie down, when it could have been a whole lot better. Fortunately, these moments are the exception and not a norm. Additionally, the film does have a much more positive look at female sexuality. The fact that the girls have agency and are not mere objects in the plot elevates it above the usual offerings. Also, putting the focus on the panicked parents allows a lot more new and interesting comedic moments. When the movie avoids the predictable / raunchy path, it is a very good movie.
The film also has a stellar comedic cast. I’m not surprised Leslie Mann, John Cena, and Ike Barinholtz were funny, as they’ve got long resumes in the entertainment industry. Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan, and Gideon Adlon were especially impressive. Of the three, I’ve only seen Kathryn Newton in anything else. I really hope all three have long careers.
There are plenty of extras on the DVD / Blu-ray, starting with an audio commentary track with the director, Kay Cannon. Up next are three deleted scenes and outtakes. There is also a Line-O-Rama, which is a common feature for these improv-heavy comedies. There are a couple of making of featurettes: Rescue Mission is five minutes long, while Prom Night is seven minutes. Ike Barinholtz hosts The History of Sex, a two-minute joke featurette. John Cena hosts a similarly short Prom Survival Kit for Parents. Chug! Chug! Chug! is a three-minute behind-the-scenes look at the infamous butt chug scene. Finally, there’s Puke-A-Palooza, a two-minute look at the way they did the vomit effects for the movie.
Blockers is a movie that is very good, but not quite a classic. By giving the girls agency over their sexuality and focusing on the parents, the film rises above the usual competition. It still isn’t great, but it is certainly worth checking out. The extras on the DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack are more than enough to push it into the purchase level.
Video on Demand
The Movie
The Extras
The Verdict
Filed under: Video Review, Blockers, Ike Barinholtz, John Cena, Leslie Mann, June Diane Raphael, Kathryn Newton, Kay Cannon, Sarayu Rao, Hannibal Buress, Gideon Adlon, Geraldine Viswanathan, Anniston Almond, Noor Anna Maher, Hannah Goergen