Movie Reaction: Blockers

Formula: 1 / Superbad

Of the essential parts of a movie, I struggle to think of something less significant than a title. Sure, you can learn a few things from the title of a movie. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes back tells you that you are watching something from a series and hints at where in the hero's journey it's at. The titles of the different Rambo movies (First Blood, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rambo III, Rambo) effectively reflect the "on the fly" evolution of the series. I'd bet money going in that a movie with a title like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is not a movie with four quadrant appeal. Because that's what a title is: a marketing decision. A lot of the time, it's a scapegoat marketing decision. Warner Brothers changed the title of Edge of Tomorrow to Live. Die. Repeat when the film was released on video. I'm sorry, but the objectively awful title wasn't the reason why the movie struggled at the box office. I'm pretty sure the hard to explain, seemingly repetitive premise was the problem with that. Changing John Carter of Mars to John Carter probably hurt that movie in the box office a little, but I don't think it would've ever been a hit, no matter what they called it. A title is only ever really a problem when it drives a movie. If the starting point of a movie is that it's going to be called The Angry Birds Movie, that's a bad sign. And even that's not a guarantee to fail. Remember how good 21 Jump Street was? No matter what the title is, it shouldn't be the deciding factor when picking something to see.

I hate the title Blockers and everything attached to the marketing for the movie. It's bad in so many ways. It makes no sense without the *wink* attached to every graphic for it. At the very least, they could've pulled the network TV move of self-censoring the title. I remember $#*! My Dad Says and Don't Trust the B From Apartment 23. Those were dumb titles, but it didn't have me talking in code. I still said "Shit by Dad Says" and "Don't Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23" (rhyming scheme be damned). I just don't get it. Why be cute about the title of this movie? It's not like calling it Blockers is going to appeal to an audience that Cock Blockers or C*** Blockers would've turned away.

Awful title aside, I have to say, I liked Blockers a lot more than I expected. The premise - three parents try to stop their daughters from losing their virginities on prom night - sounded like it was designed to please no one. Conservative people would be bothered by a movie about teenagers having sex and liberal people would be upset about the puritanical parents. I was more concerned about a cast made up of actors/actresses known more for supporting roles. The film manages to work around these concerns nimbly.

The parents are played by Leslie Mann, John Cena, and Ike Barinholtz. I didn't realize this until I looked at IMDB just now, but I've seen almost every movie Leslie Mann has been in. She's great. I don't know another way to put it. She's been better in other movies -- any time she shows up in one of her husband's (Judd Apatow's) movies is a treat and I don't think I'll ever stop signing praise for her work in the otherwise mediocre The Other Woman -- but she plays to all of her strengths in Blockers. She plays a single mother who has raised her daughter alone and is incredibly close to her. She's defined herself entirely by being a mother and is panicked by the idea of being without her daughter. If you've seen any of Mann's other movies, she's playing a more codependent version of the character in any of those movies. If I'm being honest, I want to hate John Cena. He always bothered me in the WWE (although I didn't watch much by the time he arrived). He's had to win me over the same way Dwayne Johnson did: persistence. The man doesn't think anything is below him. He's game for anything, no matter how bad it makes him look. Thanks to years in the WWE, his physical comedy is better developed than you'd expect for someone so new to comedies. He also manages to carry himself like he's not built like a tank. In Blockers, he's just an overprotective father. His incredible physique is hardly mentioned and isn't the center of all his jokes. For most of the movie, Ike Barinholtz does that Ike Barinholtz thing, He's great at modulating his reaction to things to never quire fit in order to get a laugh. He just innately knows how to deliver any line in a way that's funny. He gets a couple moments of genuine emotion in this though and nails them. If he turns into one of those comedic actors who starts showing up in dramas in 5 years, I wouldn't be surprised. The three of them lead this film by committee. It's a true ensemble in that way.

The daughters get more time in the movie than I expected. I figured the focus would be much more on the parents. They certainly get the most time, but the daughters get to be fully developed too. I see Kathryn Newton everywhere these days (Halt and Catch Fire, Big Little Lies, Lady Bird and Three Billboards in 2017 alone). She's still building her comedy chops and mostly isn't a distraction in Blockers. I don't know where Geraldine Viswqanathan came from but I want to see her in more comedies. Her blunt delivery is used to great effect throughout the film. I'm also realizing just now how much of Gideon Adlon's filmography I've unintentionally seen. This is the first time she registered with me though. She's fine in this. While the daughters are given a lot of time, the actresses simply aren't experienced enough to get the laughs that the parents can. None of them are a drain of the film though, which is all I could ask for.

This movie is shaggy as hell. It takes place in four major parts: the pre-prom cookout, the prom, an after-party at a lake house, and an after party at a hotel. There's always a lot going on and too many stories to successfully handle. A lot of beats don't have the time to breath that they need and don't end up feeling earned. When all the parents have their inevitable moments of truth with their daughters by the end, they feel right in the moment even though they make no sense in the context of what's going on. I mean, what teenager is going to have a heart to heart with a father who just kicked the door down to her hotel room on prom night? By the end, I was quite pleased with how it was all handled. The movie has a bit more to say than you'd expect.

The comedy, which - let's be clear - is the focus of the movie is gut-bustingly funny at times. Director Kay Cannon is best known as a comedy writer (30 Rock, Pitch Perfect). While Blockers is someone else's screenplay, she's certainly left her mark on this. The movie has some nice small gags, but it's really about building to big moments. Some comedies leave it up to the audience to decide when it's appropriate to laugh. A lot of small jokes build until you hit your personal break point. That's how The Death of Stalin worked last week, for example. When I laughed was often different that when the person sitting next to me laughed. Blockers is different. The audience always laughed at the same time. It didn't even matter that some of the biggest laughs were spoiled in the trailer. I doubt I'll laugh harder this year than the end of John Cena's chugging contest.

If the ultimate measure of a comedy is how often or how hard it made me laugh, then Blockers is pretty great. It's not a movie I need to see a second time. It doesn't have a story that I want to examine too closely. It doesn't have the best developed characters I'll come across this year. I laughed a lot and hard though, and it even had a bit more emotional heft than I expected. Not bad for a movie I saw because the one I came to the theater to see was sold out.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend