BLOCKERS REVIEW

American Pie with girls.  That's pretty much what Blockers is.  Except this time we are bringing the parents along for the ride too as they attempt to stop their teenage daughters from doing what they are planning to do and, as we all know, that never ends well.  This film is definitely not breaking any new ground, but that's ok as long as it is executed well and gives us a few good laughs. 

I have to commend the cast of this film.  I mean the entire cast.  The acting was so good from top to bottom that I didn't even notice it while I was watching the movie.  It didn't feel like I was watching actors.  Everybody had such great chemistry with each other that they made the characters feel like real life people.  That is impressive, especially in a film like this that puts the characters in so many ridiculous scenarios.  John Cena was the worst actor in this movie.  That's not to say he was bad.  In fact, I thought the role of the overprotective dad was perfect for him and he was quiet adequate to say the least.  Leslie Mann is a national treasure as far as I'm concerned.  She never gets a lot of credit; never is considered the star of the film.  She is just an actress who is consistently good at her job no matter what she is asked to do.  This performance is no different.  The standout here is Ike Barinholtz (Suicide Squad, The Mindy Project).  All of his jokes hit and his character was the only one in the movie that actually had any kind of an arc.  The three young actresses, Kathryn Newton (Lady Bird), Gideon Adlon, and Geraldine Viswanathan (EMO the Musical), all did a really good job in the film.  I wasn't familiar with any of them but I think they could all have a pretty bright future. 

The problem I had with the movie is that there are several scenes that seemed really out of place.  There are some ridiculous jokes that don't seem to fit with the tone they were going for.  If they wanted to go all out ridiculous goofy comedy they should have gone that direction and had less of the real-life, grounded drama.  They needed to commit one way or the other.  Pick a lane.  As it was, I was confused a lot of the time about what type of movie I was watching.  All the scenes and jokes that felt out of place kept me from getting as invested in the characters as I should have been. 

If you're looking for pure laughs, this movie is going to work for you I believe.  It seemed that the first act was a little slow with some of the jokes not really working all that well.  However, when the second act begins the movie really picks up and there is some very funny and genuine humor from there on out.  As I said before, some of the jokes were too ridiculous for my taste but, even so, were well executed and it was hard not to laugh. 

Blockers is not the next ground breaking comedy of our time or anything, but it is far from a terrible movie.  I certainly had an enjoyable experience watching this film and the more I think about it, the more I think I liked it.  It has a few problems but the acting was all really good and most of the jokes were funny.  That's about the best I could have asked for out of this.  THE MOVIE MAN GIVES IT 2.5 OUT OF 5 STARS.