'Blockers' Has A Surprising Amount Of Depth

After begrudgingly spending $4.79 for a box of Cookie Dough Bites, I sat down to watch Blockers. I didn't know too much about the movie other than reading about John Cena's performance and seeing a few TV spots. It's marketed as a comedy but, unlike a lot of other comedies, this movie has a surprising amount of depth!

Blockers is a film centered around three teenage girls and their parents. Julie (Kathryn Newton), Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan), and Sam (Gideon Adlon) are best friends who grew up together since kindergarten. Their parents are, respectively, Lisa (Leslie Mann), an overbearing single mother, Mitchell (John Cena), an overprotective yet emotional father, and Hunter (Ike Barinholtz), a sleazy deadbeat dad. Their daughters are going off to college soon and plan to lose their virginity on prom night. The parents catch wind of their plans and try to prevent that from happening, hence the title of the movie.

(The poster has a rooster before the title...Slick move, whoever thought of that!)

Usually a comedy is filled with jokes and has some drama in order to advance the plot; this movie is sort of the opposite. What makes this movie great are the relationships and interactions between the characters. Kayla, Julie, and Sam seem like inseparable friends throughout the movie. So much so that I wouldn't be surprised if the actresses were friends in reality! The parents' interactions with each other was authentic and provided most of the laughs that the movie has to offer!

I think John Cena and Ike Barinholtz had the best lines! The funniest scenes, the points where I laughed out loud, were shown in the trailer and commercials, which takes away from the experience. Suffice to say, don't watch the trailers if you haven't seen them already. The rest of the jokes were decent enough; I snickered a few times.

I don't have major complaints about the movie, only a few nitpicks. I thought some of the jokes fell flat and I questioned some of the characters' decisions ("Why are you having a friendly conversation with them instead of calling the cops?", for instance) but I put those thoughts aside for the most part and re-immersed myself in the movie.

I had a fun time watching Blockers. It has emotion, the narrative was good, and the performances were great! I don't think its Oscar worthy or movie of the year, but it's definitely worth watching with a few close friends!