150. Blockers; movie review

BLOCKERS
Cert 15
102 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong language, crude humour, sex, nudity, drugs misuse

I confess... a few years ago, I hunted down Miss W after a night out because we were so worried about her.
At 5.30am, Mrs W nudged me to say that our daughter was not home and was not replying to texts or calls.
Being a journalist, I set about my task of finding her with anxious gusto.
It began a saga which finally reached its conclusion at 8am when we knocked on the door of a house and picked her up.
That story, along with a few others, came to mind during Kay Cannon's hit and miss comedy Blockers.
This stars Leslie Mann, John Cena and Ike Barinholtz as three possessive parents who become demented when they discover their daughters (Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan and Gideon Adlon) have made a prom night pact to lose their virginity.
Thus, a night of parental pursuit begins in which they lose any morsel of dignity they may have otherwise had.
Blockers' makers have gone for quantity over quality, presumably in the hope that some of its gags will score.
The ratio of hits over misses is poor but it means that it passes the five-big-laughs test.
My problem with Blockers is that the Seth Rogen/Judd Apatow hallmark looms large. Ok, the only direct involvement is that Rogen is one of the film's many producers but there are many similarities to the Rogen/Apatow stoner movies.
Apatow's wife Leslie Mann is also a common factor and I can't help thinking that we would see the best of her if she wasn't pigeonholed into playing similar characters in her movies.
Here, she is a neurotic single parent who cannot accept that her daughter (Newton) is growing up and wants to spread her wings.
At least she is not as ridiculously possessive as Cena's character who will literally do anything (and I mean anything!) to prevent his daughter becoming a woman.
Barinholtz is meant to be the wildcard but he just ends up playing the role vacated by Rogen - the feckless dad who has a deep heart somewhere beneath his comic veil.
Meanwhile, their screen daughters make fools of all three as the movie descends into crazier and crazier scenarios.
Blockers is not great but it is not terrible and I am guessing it will probably do well at the box office.
Oh, and if you, like me, don't enjoy seeing mock puke on the screen, avoid it. There is a heck of a lot.

Reasons to watch: Has funny moments
Reasons to avoid: too many gags miss the mark

Laughs: Four
Jumps: One
Vomit: Yes - lots
Nudity: Yes
Overall rating: 6/10

Director quote - Kay Cannon: "I wanted this film to be my directorial debut because I felt the script was super funny and connected to it on both levels."

The big question - Are any parents really as insane as these?

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