Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Blockers Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman June 23, 2018

Blockers explores an interesting premise in the middle of what is otherwise a basic R-rated raunch-fest. The story essentially embodies every parent's dream and nightmare both rolled into a single night: prom night. On one hand, many parents are eager to see their children grow up, to mature into healthy young adults and, yes, leave the house to pursue their own lives and offer parents that much-deserved reprieve. But for the trio of parents in Blockers, seeing their daughters grow up comes with the realization that their hormones have fully activated and that maturity has led to a want -- a need -- for fulfillment in the bedroom. It's a catch-22; the girls are grown up, but with age comes certain wants and needs that parents still view as necessary of sheltering. And these parents will go to any length, risk life and limb and rectum and sanity, to prevent their daughters from doing the deed and deeming this one night maybe their last night of control over their blossoming little girls in a world in which sexuality is much more open -- and biology doesn't help, either.

Three girls -- Julie (Kathryn Newton), Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan), and Sam (Gideon Adlon) -- have been best friends since their first day of school. Their parents -- Julie's single mom Lisa (Leslie Mann), Kayla's married father Mitchell (John Cena), and Sam's goofy divorced father Hunter (Ike Barinholtz) -- have remained not as close but have at least stayed in some semblance of a relationship over the years. And how the years have changed the girls. Long gone are the days of innocent giggles, replaced by raging hormones and a desire to lose their virginity before heading off to college. Julie announcers her intention to sleep with her boyfriend Austin (Graham Phillips) on prom night. Kayla is all-in on the idea and decides to have sex with her date, Connor (Miles Robbins). Sam is a little more hesitant -- she's actually attracted to one of her female classmates -- but when her stepfather (Hannibal Buress) tells her that shared experiences tighten the bonds of friendship, she decides to lose her virginity to her prom date, a boy named Chad (Jimmy Bellinger), to whom she is not at all attracted. When the parents catch wind of the girls' "sex pact," they spring into action and find themselves in one insane scenario after another in hopes of preventing their girls from making a mistake, even if their interference costs their daughters the most magical night of their lives.

The film shares its focus between the daughters and the parents, but there's no mistaking where Blockers' character loyalties lie. It's named for the parents, after all, and while the film explores the girls' various wants and needs, reactions and responses to sex -- the dream encounter, experimenting with various drugs, the courage to ask another girl out -- the bulk of the humor, and the majority of the runtime, stems from the blockers' jaunts through the prom and the surrounding local area in the pursuit of preventing their girls from making their own decisions. The film's drama comes from the idea that the parents are at once both protecting and projecting on their girls. Through their would-be interference, they are reflecting on their own lives, are reliving their own mistakes, and are of the belief that their girls are incapable of making their own decisions and living their own lives, at least when it comes to sex. There's a scene in the middle of the movie in which John Cena's character's wife admonishes the blocking trio, and Lisa in particular, for this very idea. It's no surprise where the movie goes and how things resolve, but the filmmakers at least attempt to wrench in a bit of a dramatic core (read: social commentary) into an otherwise raunchy but vacuous movie watching experience.

But no matter what core story qualities the film may explore, with a trio of girls looking for sex and a threesome of parents looking to interrupt their dreams, there's no mistaking that Blockers is largely comprised of recycled gags or, at best, slightly new spins on old ideas. There's a multi participant vomit gag, a character forced to chug beer from the wrong end, and so on. The teenagers are largely stock, the parents offer a spectrum of manufactured and manicured perspectives on life in order to facilitate the plot and the film's various perspectives on life and sexuality. None of it feels particularly novel or organic. It's a cookie-cutter Comedy, contemporarily funny in bursts but lacking that classic flow and comedy nuance, favoring crude, over the top gags rather than the sort of complimentary, and more grounded, humor that rose so many 80s movies to classic status.

Blockers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Blockers features a good digitally sourced 1080p image. Textural qualities are fine. Faces enjoy in-depth detail across board: fine lines, stubble, and makeup. Environmental textures are well defined throughout the film's environments, including bedrooms, decorated school gyms, limo interiors, the whole nine yards across the predictable set pieces the film traverses. Color intensity satisfies. Lisa's yellow sweater top is amongst the most consistent, regular color highlight. Her daughter's red dress is well saturated and punchy. Natural greens find strong intensity and black levels are excellent, whether nighttime exteriors or low-light limo interiors. Light noise is unavoidably introduced in lower light, but other source or encode issues are essentially nonexistent. This is one of those transfers that's not a standout but that doesn't disappoint, either. It's a good, workmanlike 1080p presentation suitable for this style of movie in 2018.

Blockers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Blockers' DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack holds many of the same qualities as the 1080p video counterpart. It's perfectly effective but isn't going to blow anyone away. There's good musical spunk and stage penetration to enjoy. Clearly defined details abound, a wide stage immersion is obvious, a quality low end support adds depth, and music opens up a bit with a mild reverberation in the gymnasium. Overlaid tunes and score still dominate, however, in terms of fullness and richness. Party and prom scenes open up a bit to draw the listener in, with a wide-range of nicely intermixed and balanced sound elements not competing for attention but rather working in harmony to recreate the film's various environments. A few larger sound bursts lack the sort of high yield intensity one might find in a bigger budget film; an explosion later on in the movie isn't particularly stout, but the core sound element is effective. Lighter atmospherics, such as heard during scenes in which the parents are making their way across town in search of their kids, are well integrated and seamlessly blend into the background. Dialogue is consistently clear and precise with natural front-center positioning and prioritization.

Blockers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Blockers' Blu-ray isn't a supplemental virgin; there a number of extra delights to be enjoyed here. The package hits all of the expected supplemental highlights for a raunchy Comedy release. A DVD copy of the film and a Movies Anywhere digital copy code are included with purchase.

• Deleted Scenes (1080p): Included are See Ya Later, Suckers (0:46); Olds Blocking the Beam (1:10); and Rudy "The Main Man" Glover (0:38).
• Gag Reel (1080p, 2:39): Humorous moments from the set.
• Line-O-Rama (1080p, 7:26): Various ad-lib takes for several scenes.
• Rescue Mission (1080p, 5:14): A recap of the main character roster, a discussion of the film's most outrageous scenes, stunts, and more.
• Prom Night (1080p, 6:37): A look at the girls' "sex pact" to have sex at prom and the characters who are their objects of desire.
• The History of Sex with Ike Barinholtz (1080p, 2:06): The actor delivers a recounting of the world's history of sex.
• John Cena's Prom Survival Kit for Parents (1080p, 2:35): Cena pulls out a few necessary items from his professional blocker's bag of goodies.
• Chug! Chug! Chug! (1080p, 3:20): A closer look at a scene in which John Cena's character takes in some beer from the wrong end.
• Puke-A-Palooza (1080p, 2:02): Planning out the film's vomit visuals.
• Audio Commentary: Director Kay Cannon guides her audience through the film with insights into the story, her actors and the characters they play, production design, anecdotal insights, raunchy comedy-meets-parental-drama, and more. The track is a bit slow and gaps are frequent. This is a fairly bland track that's only for diehard Blockers fans.

Blockers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Blockers is a fairly nondescript contemporary Comedy that might offer some unique perspectives within the genre but its core is mostly cookie cutter. There are some laughs to be had, fans of gross-out humor will find much to enjoy, but the film is less a unique creature and more a stale entry with some more appealing window dressing in support. The Blu-ray is fine. Universal has provided a very good baseline home presentation, offering perfectly fine video and audio and a typical assortment of genre-essential supplements, like featurettes, deleted scenes, a gag reel, line-o-rama, and a commentary. Fans can purchase with confidence that they are receiving a quality product.