Blockers - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Blockers

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
I’ve got a huge weakness for dumb, raunchy, comedies and have no guilt admitting that. I liked Neighbors well enough, and about laughed myself silly with The Interview, so when I saw the trailer for Blockers I thought it was going to be RIGHT up my alley. I knew what was going to happen before it even started (a group of teenager female friends are decided to lose their virginity on prom night, and the parents snoop and find out, freaking out in the process. Naturally that means the film is actually going to be REALLY light on the actually having sex part, and focus on the parents running around like chicken’s with their heads cut off trying to save their teenage daughters from making a “mistake”, and the teenagers realizing they don’t ACTUALLY want to do it right now. This type of film is pretty much spelled out for you from previous genre films), but who cares!? That’s the fun of those movies. They’re predictable, goofy, and completely insane. But we’re mainly watching for the stupid hijinks that the parents and teens are going to go through. The thing is, a movie like this has to have ONE feature for it to actually work. Actually be funny. A feature that Blockers sadly forgets to include in the 102 minute film.

Three teenage girl friends, Julie (Kathryn Newton), Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan), and Sam (Gideon Adlon) have been best friends forever. They’ve shared their grade school days together. Their middle school days, and their 4 years of highschool and tonight it’s the GREATEST night of their school days. No, not graduation, it’s prom night! You know, the night where high school seniors (and sometimes juniors, depends on the school) celebrate the transition from child to adulthood (where in reality it’s usually a drunken night of stupidity, regret, and stories to tell your younger children what NOT to do in their lives). Julie has dreamed of this magical night her whole life and decides that tonight is the “night”, if you know what I mean. Not to be left out, Kayla and Sam agree to do the deed on prom night as well, and form a #sexpact (yes, they actually hashtag it) together.

Julie’s single mom Lisa (Leslie Mann), Kayla’s goofy macho man dad Mitchell (John Cena) and Sam’s deadbeat father Hunter (Ike Barinholtz) are your typical stereotypes of parents. You know, Lisa is the helicopter parent, while Mitchell is the macho man who will beat up any boyfriend who even LOOKS at his daughter. Hunter is the divorced day who actually is the open minded progressive one of the trio, who just wants his daughter to have fun. However, when the three nerve wracked parents snoop on their daughter’s instant messenger and find out about #sexpact2018, they flip a lid and make it their night’s mission to stalk and block their daughter’s chances of actually going through with the deed.

Yeah, it’s not hard to see every beat of Blockers along the way. The teenagers are out and ready to get buck wild, but the parents are freaking out and are going to stumble and bumble their way through the night trying to track their daughter’s and their dates down. What results is your typical raunchy comedy where someone mentions the world “sex” and the parents act like veritable idiots trying to protect their daughters. Kay Cannon set up a great cast of “stupid comedy” actors and has an interesting premise with the whole “who’s job is it to protect who? And where is that line from child to adult drawn?” scenario, but for some puzzling reason, drops the ball on making it actually FUNNY.

Blockers is one of those movies that really has all the funny lines in the trailer, with maybe one or two others strewn around. For a 102 minute movie, the film feels overly long and looks like it could have trimmed off 15 or 20 minutes with relatively minimal results. The kids running around was actually mildly amusing at times, but the three parents had maybe THREE funny moments the entire film. John Cena, who I normally love in these stupid roles, was the highlight of the movie. But that’s not saying much, as he had 2 of the three funny sections of the movie and the rest was me staring at the screen wondering if I was supposed to laugh or not. I mean, we have an entire section of Family Guy style chain vomiting as one of the film’s big laugh scenes!

Now, on the good side, I DID enjoy the fact that the movie tried to tackle a serious subject matter like “who’s job is it to protect who?” and “where does the line between protecting and being over protective begin and end?”, as it’s a subject that tends to get talked about very little, even if I didn’t always agree with the answers the film put forth. However, it’s unmistakable that besides the great cast and a solid enough premise, Blockers just uses a whole plethora of recycled gags, cheap shock humor, and raunchy comedy tropes that have been copied, and recopied in dozens of other films. The jokes missing their mark entirely (for the most part) is the most egregious issue though, as I usually have no problem with recycled dirty humor (it is what it is). I sat there watching the movie with this puzzled look on my face, as you could tell Kay Cannon was TRYING so very hard to elicit a laugh, but the punchlines fell so flat I had a hard time comprehending “oh! we’re supposed to laugh here!”.




Rating:

Rated R for crude and sexual content, and language throughout, drug content, teen partying, and some graphic nudity




Video:

Blockers was shot using the typical Arri Alexa camers (2.8K source) and mastered with an unknown resolution digital intermediate. I’m not exactly sure WHY the 4K UHD was foregone, as the movie has a 4K digital release, as well as the profitability to inspire one on home video as well. Maybe Universal will release a 4K disc later on down the line as they did with The Phantom Thread? Who knows, all I know is that the Blu-ray is a very pleasing looking 2.39:1 image that shines on Blu-ray. The picture itself is a very neutral one, with the typical earmarks of a film of this genre. Clean digital shots with exemplary detail and nice shiny colors. The color saturation is never wildly bright, and much of the stupidity takes place on prom NIGHT (meaning no daylight), which gives the film a shadowing look at times. Fine details are more than pleasing, and the up close and personal shots show some incredibly nuanced details on clothing and faces. Sometimes the film DOES get a little soft (especially with the cgi), but overall this is a very clean and satisfactory encode form Universal.





Audio:

Blockers is first and foremost a run of the mill comedy, which means we really shouldn’t be expecting a Transformers or Braveheart level of audio mixing going on. The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is excellent for the genre, and does everything required of it without problem. The mix is a bit front heavy, with a goodly portion of the film stuck dealing directly with the dialog and some ambient front of the room sound effects. The track opens up a bit at the prom itself, as the music adds the back channel support along with the crowd, but this is once again a front heavy mix that REALLY doesn’t deal a whole lot with surrounds. The LFE channel is engaged a decent amount, with the explosive car chase, the pounding dance music, and a few doors getting kicked in (literally). It’s an above average track, but just not a genre that really requires tons and tons of immersive qualities.







Extras:

• Audio commentary by director Kay Cannon
• Deleted Scenes
• Gag Reel – The entire cast contributes to these on-set flubs.
• Line-O-Rama – The laughs continue after the take!
• Rescue Mission – Being a parent isn't easy, as Leslie Mann, Ike Barinholtz, and John Cena make abundantly clear. Hear them and director Kay Cannon discuss parental mistakes and lessons learned. They even top it off with a good old-fashioned car explosion!
• Prom Night – Filmmakers and cast discuss how they achieved the perfect prom look and also share some of their own personal prom stories.
• The History of Sex with Ike Barinholtz – Ike Barinholtz explains the origins of human sexuality and its evolution through time.
• John Cena's Prom Survival Kit for Parents – John Cena shows off a survival kit filled with items that will help parents survive the most stressful time of year - prom season!
• Chug! Chug! Chug! – The film introduced the world to the concept of "butt chugging." Hear cast, crew, and butt-chugger John Cena discuss how they handled this standout scene.
• Puke-a-Palooza – One memorable scene involves copious amounts of projectile vomit. See what cast, filmmakers, and crew went through to make sure the puke was as authentic as possible.

Final Score: ​

Blockers isn’t a horrible movie, but it’s on the lower end of the raunchy comedy spectrum of funniness. It falls squarely in the middle between Neighbors and Dirty Grandpa (thankfully it’s funnier than THAT atrocity), and as such is really nothing more than a mild rental on the high end of things. The actual naughtiness of the film is much more talked about than actually done (except in one hilarious scene with Gary Cole and Gina Gershon), but fails to really pull in the laughs that it needed to work. John Cena dominates in every scene he’s in, but that again is not saying too much, as even he can’t garner more than a few chuckles with his macho man act. Universal’s Blu-ray is technically sound, with good video/audio and a decent array of extras in a world where extras are dwindling rapidly for new releases. Sadly, I’d still put it as a low rental, or just skip it it entirely if raunchy, stupid, comedies aren’t your thing.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: John Cena, Leslie Mann, Ike Barinholtz
Directed by: Kay Kannon
Written by: Brian Kehoe, Jim Kehoe
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish, French DTS 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Universal
Rated: R
Runtime: 102 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: July 3rd, 2018

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Skip It/Low Rental​

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I will skip it based on your recommendation. Too bad, had high expectations from the commercial.

 

[JBrax]

I’m actually a fan of some of these types of raunchy comedies. I’ll be giving this a rent this morning. A Quiet Place and Blockers doubleheader tonight.

 

[JBrax]

Just finished and thought it was ok. Some funny lol moments but quite cheesy.

 

[Michael Scott]

yeah, I'm a fan of raunchy comedies too, but this one just fell flat most of the time, IMO. I mean, I enjoy Neighbors and Neighbors II, but this one just didn't hit the mark sadly

 

[JBrax]

No, no it didn’t.