Since Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, there have been a new slew of R-rated comedies in the Judd Apatow ilk. Many of them have been pretty good (Trainwreck) and some not so (This is 40). Blockers lands somewhere in the middle, maybe even on the side of pretty damn ok.
Blockers follows the story of three parents (John Cena, Leslie Mann, and Ike Barinholtz) looking to stop their daughters from following through with a sex pact during their prom night. It has a lot of the similar beats of R-Rated coming-of-age comedies, a la American Pie, and ends up being more of a heartfelt coming-of-age movie than a funny comedy.
There are plenty of over-the-top sexual gags throughout the film that are a comedic coin flip. You get the familiar awkward “parents having sex” scene, the “men confronting homophobia in front of another naked man” scene, and the “adults partying with kids” scene. These all end up getting uncomfortable contagious laughs dependent on how much others are laughing around you. There are a few new spins to these which involve blind folds and butt-chugging, but the most laugh-out-loud moments come from the smaller interactions amongst the parents and children. Just when some of the “seen-it-before” comedy begins to wear on you, the families have a genuinely heartfelt moment that simultaneously bring smiles and tears.
The performances mirror the comedy in that you have seen these roles before, but there are enough surprises that you enjoy riding along in this adventure. Leslie Mann plays the same role she plays in at least two of her husband’s (Apatow) other movies. She is endearingly overbearing but still likeable. There might not be an actress in Hollywood that does this better than her. John Cena is continuing to gain comfort in his acting lane of the sensitive masculine type. Every role he receives, he gets better with this subversive persona. The freshest take of the adult trio goes to Barinholtz’s character, making what looks like the most unstable parent of the three the sanest. It is usually the parent who doesn't have their stuff together who is to blame for the movie's shenanigans, but so often in Blockers you find yourself yelling "CAN YOU PLEASE LISTEN TO WHAT THIS MAN IS SAYING!!!!" As a whole, the adult trio did not hold the audience’s attention like the teenage trio. Mann and Barinholtz’s daughters Julie (Kathryn Newton) and Sam (Gideon Adlon) are well-rounded and intelligently flawed, but the standout is Cena’s daughter Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan). She is just as subversive as her fictional father, as well-rounded as her two friends, and as funny as any other character on the screen. She has all of the movie’s funniest and most memorable lines.
Blockers is surprisingly enjoyable in a surprising way. I went in hoping for another gut-busting raunchy comedy, and left getting a touching family comedy. In between the slapstick, sex, and salaciousness, there are themes that touch on healthy parent-teenager relationships, the realities of divorce, and the difficulties of staying close to your friends as you grow older. Because of these hidden gems found in familiar muck, I give Blockers 7/10 really weird beer chugging contests.