This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
the weaned child shall put [her] hand on the cockatrice' den—Is. 11:8
Plot Overview
Between little Julie's “Happy first
day of school”—still clinging to her mom—and
teenage Julie partaking of “Prom Night … the beginning
of my adult life”—while trying to shake her clinging
mom—comes a flurry of home birthday videos of her with
her two school chums Sam & Kayla. For twelve years these girls
have celebrated in lock step, birthday after birthday, but
Prom Night is like to tear their camaraderie apart. Their internal
body clocks are set to different drummers. Julie (Kathryn Newton)
tells her friends Sam (Gideon Aldon) and Kayla (Geraldine
Viswanathan) that she plans to lose her virginity on that magic
night. Kayla declaims the same, and Sam (“Guys, I want in on
this”) goes along for the rite. Kayla may have spoken too soon,
while Sam has leanings in a different direction.
Parents Lisa (Leslie Mann), Hunter (Ike Barinholtz), and Mitchell
(John Cena) meet up on account of their daughters Julie, Sam and Kayla
respectively going off on Prom Night. They stumble upon their girls'
group chat consisting of a page of emoji (“WTH is that!” ¶“I have no
idea.” ¶“I love puzzles.”) Their Rosetta stone
is an eggplant emoji
that one of the parents recognizes as, “Eggplants are
dicks in emoji language.” From there they scope out their kids'
plans, that “They're making a sex pact. They're gonna lose their virginity on Prom Night.” They take off
after them in “Fast and Furious” fashion.
The night hangs in the balance as these parents follow the motto,
WWVDD? I'm sure
Van Diesel understands Newton's law of motion: “For every
action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” These parents
likely didn't do what Jesus would have done, either.
Ideology
I am including here quotations from the Apocrypha: Ecclesiasticus, also known as The Wisdom of the Son of Sirach.(Sirach 33:1–6) There shall no evil happen unto him that feareth the Lord; but in temptation even again he will deliver him. A wise man hateth not the law; but he that is an hypocrite therein is as a ship in a storm. A man of understanding trusteth in the law; and the law is faithful unto him, as an oracle. Prepare what to say, and so thou shalt be heard: and bind up instruction, and then make answer. The heart of the foolish is like a cartwheel; and his thoughts are like a rolling axletree. A stallion horse is as a mocking friend, he neigheth under every one that sitteth upon him.
On Prom Night we encounter two notable characters: Rudy is the limo driver who is available to guide them into having a most enjoyable night to remember. He is the real deal. Then there is Donahue revving up to do a rap number at the dance. This guy has a hole in his head. He's capable of spewing an endless stream of tortuous verbiage. Take your pick.
(Sirach 33:7–9) Why doth one day excel another, when as all the light of every day in the year is of the sun? By the knowledge of the Lord they were distinguished: and he altered seasons and feasts. Some of them hath he made high days, and hallowed them, and some of them hath he made ordinary days.
School consisted of endless ordinary days. Nobody filmed them. Then there were the holidays: birthdays and the like. Lots of home videos were taken of these. Finally, there's the high day of Prom Night in which even Mitchell gets suckered into a beer-chugging contest. Coming at the beginning of summer it's about the longest day of the year, which means the shortest night, to minimize mischief. The party has moved to a grande hotel where we see the clock read 11:54.
(Sirach 33:10–15) And all men are from the ground, and Adam was created of earth: In much knowledge the Lord hath divided them, and made their ways diverse. Some of them hath he blessed and exalted and some of them he sanctified, and set near himself: but some of them hath he cursed and brought low, and turned out of their places. As the clay is in the potter's hand, to fashion it at his pleasure: so man is in the hand of him that made him, to render to them as liketh him best. Good is set against evil, and life against death: so is the godly against the sinner, and the sinner against the godly. So look upon all the works of the most High; and there are two and two, one against another.
We see variations in the emergent, divergent sexualities of the lead grads as they're compared to girls / woman / vampire as the case may be. Their parents and their dates' parents expand the field further to include: “open marriage” in which the husband and wife engage in interesting, gay sex-play with each other; faithful, heterosexual monogamy; lonely, single-motherhood; miscegenation; sleeping around; and divorce. Everybody has his sexual preference. However, when Hunter defends his sexual preference of sleeping with married women, the rejoinder is that's not a qualifying sexual preference.
The girls themselves make a subtle value judgment. Let me explain. “Blockers” ends “Three months later” as the girls go off to college. That would be on or about Sept. 17, Constitution Day. The U.S. Constitution says that what powers are not delineated in it for the federal government are reserved for the states and for the people. There is nothing in it about federal regulation of marriage. States make their own marriage laws, though in most cases they recognize marriages from other states. Recall several years ago that the populace of a number of New England states, as well as of New York and Washington d.c., legalized same-sex marriage. The populace of many other states elected to define marriage as the union of one man with one woman. Notably, in California Proposition 8 added that definition to their constitution. Certain judges overruled them, and the Supreme Court voided them all. Now, here on Prom Night they don't want “the law” interfering with their fun; when the cops show up at the lake house everybody splits. What the kids are concerned about is peer acceptance, not legalities. Julie lives “45 minutes away from the University of Chicago”, but she has just received an acceptance letter from UCLA. In transit to a moveable party she has removed her Prom gown in favor of a T–shirt reading, Ill. US 66. I can't help but think of the “Route 66” theme song that starts, “Well, it winds from Chicago to L.A., / More than 2000 miles all the way.” Julie is flaunting a reminder of a whole swath of the US where the majority opinion does not consider homosexuality a mere sexual preference. It's subtle and doesn't go any further than that; rather, the girls seem supportive of lesbians at the party.
The screws, however, get tightened when Mitchell looking for his daughter starts throwing open doors, one after another, down a long hall of the grande hotel and we the audience are treated to what's behind this door. Are these all merely sexual preferences? Earlier in the evening when the Prom cake was delivered to the house and Lisa opened the box to expose its decorative motif, one woman in the audience shouted: “Oh, God! That's so wrong.” Hey, the night is still young, and I suppose different audiences will react to different doors.
(Sirach 13:15–20) Every beast loveth his like, and every man loveth his neighbor. All flesh consorteth according to kind, and a man will cleave to his like. What fellowship hath the wolf with the lamb? so the sinner with the godly. What agreement is there between the hyena and a dog? and what peace between the rich and the poor? As the wild ass is the lion's prey in the wilderness: so the rich eat up the poor. As the proud hate humility: so doth the rich abhor the poor.
That is a prelude to an end-times prophecy, (Isaiah 11:6-9) “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” It's a biblical “Gotcha!” moment.
Production Values
This comedy, “” (2018) was directed by Kay Cannon, directing for the first time. Its screenwriters were Brian Kehoe and Jim Kehoe. It stars Leslie Mann, John Cena, Ramona Young, and Ike Barinholtz. John Cena and Leslie Mann both were a riot with their comedic timing and fresh material. Ike Barinholtz nailed it as clueless parent Hunter. The teenage girls were interesting and the actresses who played them spot-on. Geraldine Viswanathan as an adventurous Kayla managed to steal some scenes.
MPAA rated it R for crude and sexual content, and language throughout, drug content, teen partying, and some graphic nudity. Since the script was written by a couple of guys, the girls' dialogue sounds, well, masculine, both in expression and reasoning about getting laid. I remember thinking, you've come a long way, baby. Other than that, there was some really funny material and tangled predicaments throughout. It had its share of raunchiness mixed in, as well. It mercifully did not rely on a single joke to run the whole gamut.
Review Conclusion w/ Christian Recommendation
In the end I found this a touching as well as entertaining movie. The girls would turn out all right, and if not, then it would be on them. It was a funny night from beginning to end. True, I had to close my eyes at some points, but the movie gives us permission to do that without feeling unsophisticated; there are limits, you know. This one is worth taking a chance on.
Movie Ratings
Action Factor: Weak action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Numerous suspenseful moments. Overall product rating: Four and a half stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quoted from the Authorized Version. Pub. 1611. Rev. 1769. Software.
Apocryphal scripture taken from The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English. U.S.A.: Hendrickson Pub. Originally published by Samuel Bagster & Sons, Ltd., London, 1851. Print, WEB (for verse numbering.)
Route 66 lyrics © EMI Music Publishing.
bibles.n7nz.org