A recent article in the LA Times lamented the decline in
attendance of summer comedies. It noted that past comedies seemed a treasure
trove at the box office but that lately most comedies were doing less than
stellar business. Whereas many had done well over the $100 million dollar mark
years ago the frequency of that happening recently had dropped to well below
that. Even with low production costs they weren’t returning a profit. In the
article it cited BLOCKERS as a movie that fared well taking in just $92 million
globally. After watching it I was perplexed as to how that was possible.
BLOCKERS tells the story of two sets of three individuals.
Three young girls meet on their first day of school and become lifelong friends.
At the same time so do their parents Lisa (Leslie Mann), Mitchell (John Cena)
and Hunter (Ike Barinholtz). Time passes and the girls grow, remaining friends.
The parents do as well somewhat with Lisa raising her daughter as a single
mother, Mitchell and his wife having a second child and Hunter divorcing and
not being around as often.
Tonight is the big night, senior prom and the last big bash
before heading off to college. Julie (Kathryn Newton) has decided that tonight
she will also take the plunge and lose her virginity. Kayla (Geraldine
Viswanathan) decides that she will as well, forming a pact with her two
friends. Sam (Gideon Adlon) holds out for a bit, knowing that she’s more
attracted to women than men but not acting on it yet, but eventually falls in
as well.
Their plans go a bit off when Lisa finds her daughter has
left open her messaging app on her laptop, giving her access to the girl’s
conversations via chat. Sharing it with Mitchell and Hunter, Mitchell agrees
they need to put a stop to it while Hunter says the girls should have their
fun. Lisa and Mitchell disagree and the trio set off to find the girls.
This leads us to a back and forth scenario where on one hand
we see the girls and what is going on with their plans as they move from the
prom to a party to a hotel room. Each of them has their own issues to deal
with: Julie hiding the fact from her clinging mother that she wants to go
across country to UCLA, Kayla unsure that she wants to go through with things
and Sam discovering what her real sexuality is.
On the parents side we witness them get into more
problematic situations played for laughs. This includes watching the parents of
Julie’s boyfriend having sex through a window, “butt chugging” beer from a beer
bong and having a car explode. “Hilarity” soon follows.
As with most movies involving kids these days to come from
Hollywood the kids prove to be smarter than the adults and make their own
choices no matter what the parents think. The parents look stupid and
ridiculous in their attempts to thwart the girl’s plans. And we get a happy
ending by the final credits.
The movie provides so few laughs, most of them resorting to gross
out mode or sex jokes, that it made me sad to think that this has become the
state of film comedy. It’s as if some 13 year old boy has determined what will
be find its way on screen, giggling all the way. When I saw the film was
directed by a woman I was stunned.
In a world of #metoo and where women are becoming more
empowered I couldn’t understand why a movie like this would reach out to anyone
with the exception of hormonal teen boys. Is allowing young girls in a movie to
act as crude and rude as their male counterparts really a step forward? Does
someone really find that to be an encouraging thing, something that should be
emulated and promoted? For myself I found it to be a step back. If you believe
being as stupid and lowbrow as your male counterparts is a step forward I think
you might be out of touch.
Zero stand out performances here, nothing that I would call
a career maker or breaker. The look and feel of the movie is well done but then
so are many TV movies. I found this movie to be one that will disappear quickly
and not be well remembered.
While watching I couldn’t help but think to myself how low
comedy has gone. Having recently watched a few classic comedies from the
distant past and reading titles in that LA Times article like TRADING PLACES,
GHOSTBUSTERS and AIRPLANE, I kept thinking how memorable those movies were and
will remain while movies like this will become a blip on the radar. It’s not
that audiences are turning their backs on comedy it’s that comedies are
offering so little and presenting items that appeal to just below the lowest
common denominator. If you want comedies to bring people in to the theater try
growing up. Sex comedies of the 30s and 40s offered dry wit and hilarious
writing. Today’s comedies offer “hold my beer and watch me do something
stupid”. Sorry, I think I’ll pass.
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