Bloqueurs

This movie was a good, generic crude slapstick comedy for about an hour, but ran out of jokes and fell painfully flat at the end. Sacrificed comedy and screenwriting to push a political message for nearly a third of the movie. Tried to be inspiring instead of funny, and just turned out to be annoying. Don't pay money to watch this. Watch once it's out on DVD if you're bored and easily amused.

As a movie fan, I don't care for "genre movies" - meaning, in general, any project done just because authors imagine this kind of thing being hot right now.

As a rule, such efforts lack depth because they rely on cliches but rarely concentrate on fleshing out the world and characters which are the basic building blocks of decent storytelling.

As a result, I don't usually watch musicals, superhero stories, or computer animations... but I still like raunchy comedies. Not that I have high hopes for them, it's just a guilty pleasure.

"Blockers" falls into the latter category so if this kind of thing is not your cup of tea, you can stop reading now. Watching this wouldn't change your mind about sex, genitalia, bodily fluid, or partying related jokes.

Having said that, "Blockers" feels like one of the best raunchy mainstream comedies around. Definitely one of my favorites since the current wave was kickstarted by Judd Apatow's "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" in 2005.

I mentioned the legendary comedy screenwriter-director-producer on purpose. Here we have one of the more successful attempts to use Apatow's particular blend of entertainment to a great effect.

You know - dirty jokes but also a lot of heart, laid-back stories about everyday people, improvisational but strong dialogue, enough room to let everyone's personal charm shine through.

Apatow's formula has been around for a while now - finding a thankful audience with the short-lived cult series "Freaks and Geeks", gaining worldwide attention with "Virgin". But there's only few comedies that have managed to use it to such a good effect as "Blockers".

It's even cooler that the successful imitators are not comedy pros or Apatow veterans but (judging by their IMDb's resumes) relatively inexperienced screenwriting brothers Brian and Jim Kehoe. Plus the director is a woman, called Kay Connon.

I don't consider myself biased but women's efforts to helm modern raunchy comedies don't seem too encouraging, as witnessed in "Rough Night" and "Bad Moms 2", two recent examples that just suck.

Connon, on the other hand, has experience with the genre, having co-written the whole of "Pitch Perfect" trilogy. And her achievement as a first time director is denifinitely a noteworthy one. "Blockers" is just chock full of committed and charming performances. This is always a sign of good director because memorable performances rarely just happen, even in the best of times.

I am not mainly talking about the three leads (Leslie Mann, Ike Barinholtz, John Cena) as parents on a mission to cockblock their youngsters' prom night sexcapades. The overall coolness of the big cast is something to savour, including Miles Robbins who feels like a second coming of Russell Brand in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall".

The compatibility and impeccable comic timing of every major player is just great. Special shout out should go to John Cena - who knew that WWE star could be such an asset in comedy, and not in supporting role as used to, but as one of the leads.

Traditionally, the "Apatow formula's" weakness has been lack of strikingly interesting story which often brings an overreliance on mediocre dialogue.

"Blockers's" story is not that interesting either - and some section could be shorter, such as teenagers in hotel - but the result works even when it gets corny, offering enough energy and inspired mayhem to be worth of genre fan's time.

All in all, "Blockers" kind of reminds me of "Step Brothers", one of my modern comedy favourites from 2008. The story is not the strong point and suffers from staying "middle of the road", lacking the one great punch which would raise it to the leagues of insta-classics. But the result is greater than sum of its parts, and the charm of the cast puts it a league of its own.

There's one thing that I'm a bit sad about though. The trailers make it seem like a mindless mainstream offering although the movie is slower and a bit more thoughtful than usual.

If possible, please watch "Blockers" itself first and trailers later, otherwise you may feel that you have seen all the stand-out bits already, which may make you miss out on how nice the movie feels as a whole.

If you would have told me 5 years ago that I would enjoy a movie where John Cena butt chugs a beer, I would have been shocked that you made such a specific accusation, but then probably agreed with you. Aside from its moments of corniness and absurdity, Blockers accomplished its goal of getting a few good laughs out of me. The coming of age plot hidden behind our adult protagonists was charming.

Blockers is one of the funniest and best comedies in years. I want to get that statement out of the way first.

Three girls who have been best friends since elementary school agree to each have sex with their dates on prom night. Their parents catch wind of the plan and decide that they must stop this from happening. They play the role of blockers.

That's really all you need to know about the plot. This movie is fueled by the characters, all of which are more layered than they first seem. Look out for Ike Barinholtz's moment in the third act. And John Cena's. And Leslie Mann's. Heck, every featured character has at least one impressive dramatic moment.

But let's be clear-this is a comedy. Several scenes in this movie had me absolutely cracking up, and I was far from the only viewer laughing that hard. One guy started wheezing and even exclaimed, "oh man, this is too much; I can't breathe!" Then the crowd laughed even more. All of this uproarious laughter from a movie that contains no comedy stars. It's rare.

Btw, I have nothing but love for Leslie Mann (a comedy standout, not quite a star) and John Cena (a star, perhaps, but not yet for his comedy).

Then I realized something. There are comedy stars in this movie. They just haven't become stars yet. What I'm saying is, remember the names and faces from this movie, especially the three daughters. In a few years you will look back and see this as their breakout moment.

In addition to the humor, which is abundant, this movie has quite a bit of heart. That's what takes it up a level. Each parent-daughter relationship feels real and lived in. This helps viewers who are not already parents themselves understand what these parents are going through.

When one daughter asks why sex is so bad (a totally reasonable question), her dad stammers for a moment, then says he doesn't know. It's tough to explain. The movie wisely doesn't take this conversation any further. If it had, the conversation would have become preachy. Her dad has an answer, but it's a long, complicated and messy one. The scene (and the movie) works better without attempting to provide this messy explanation.

That's a line that the writers walk carefully and successfully. They say just enough to provide both sides of thought on why the parents want so desperately to stop their daughters. Are they wrong to manically chase their daughters down? Well, yeah. Are they wrong to want to protect them? Not at all.

That's what this blocking attempt is really about. Protecting their daughters. To the parents, sex is a step into adulthood and all its problems. They just want their daughters to stay safe and innocent as long as they can.

It's a warm message that works because it never patronizes viewers. This movie is much smarter than it looks in the trailer. I certainly didn't expect to laugh this much, think this much, or feel a lump in my throat when I saw promos for Blockers. But I did. And now I'm giving it a strong recommendation.

Go see Blockers. It's a hilarious story that also manages to make you care.

Blockers is a relatively newer R rated comedy, released in 2018 and having making somewhat of a profit (although perhaps the studios thought it would be bigger). The comedy in this film is as in which we have seen before, from these type of teen sex comedies. A lot of jokes were quite predictable and just weren't funny. The premise is good decent as it is gender opposite and makes sense in a way, but overall the comedy just wasn't funny.

The cast was good, John Cena as the over protective father was perhaps the highlight. Other than that, the film is predictable in the end, with somewhat of a sequel type ending. However, this film probably won't end up getting a sequel due to it not being that big of a success. And perhaps its for the best.