Blockers
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: April 6, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 46 Critic Reviews
Positive:
38
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyApr 4, 2018
Sure, showing that girls can be as horny and impulsive and raunchy as guys isn’t exactly the most radical statement. But when it’s done this well, it certainly is a welcome change-up. Read full review
90
Village VoiceKristen Yoonsoo KimApr 5, 2018
Blockers, on the surface, sticks very much to the formula — even the prom setting is very been there, done that. But it’s subversive in these little details, and the resolution is genuinely touching. The best part is that Cannon doesn’t have to sacrifice any of the laughs to get there. Read full review
84
TheWrapApril WolfeMar 12, 2018
It’s the little, almost imperceptible twists to the story that make Blockers a worthy entry into the teen sex comedy canon, most notably that girls and women are funny and can play more than the killjoy or the babe. Read full review
83
The Film StageJohn FinkMar 11, 2018
Blockers doesn’t pull off the impossible so much as it turns the tables on a common formula, finding something fresh, empowering, and hilarious in that time-old story of a group of friends making a pact to lose their V-card on prom night. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 12, 2018
Leslie Mann’s warmth and air of charming confusion have helped many a film before. But she gets some definitive moments for the clipreel here. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 9, 2018
A wonderfully crude film (we're talking "Superbad" levels of raunchiness), but one in which the overall vibe is sweet: kids patiently waiting for their parents to grow up already. Read full review
80
SlateInkoo KangApr 6, 2018
Blockers is about as funny and heartfelt as studio comedies get (which isn’t meant as a backhanded compliment), while smart and insightful enough to double as a guide to raising teenage girls. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelApr 5, 2018
There’s nothing self-serious about it. Blockers has all the brashness and irreverence that any comedy fan of the Apatow era could ask for, even as it represents a more gender-balanced future for Hollywood. Read full review
80
EmpireOlly RichardsMar 26, 2018
As both teen comedy and mid-life crisis comedy it’s terrific. It feels honest and modern in a genre that so very often uses dick jokes and gross-outs to cover old-fashioned morals. Read full review
80
Total FilmJamie GrahamMar 26, 2018
Not in the Bridesmaids league but a very funny female-centric comedy with big laughs and spot-on attitudes. Read full review
80
ScreenCrushBritt HayesMar 12, 2018
The perfect teen coming-of-age story is just as rare as a great sex comedy; and exceptional comedies in general are hard to find — which would make Blockers something of a cinematic unicorn for delivering on all counts. Read full review
80
Vanity FairJoanna RobinsonMar 12, 2018
The film treats all three of these young women with enormous respect while never once losing its sense of humor. Read full review
80
IGNLaura PrudomMar 12, 2018
While Blockers treads some familiar territory in its sex pact escapades, and occasionally buckles under the weight of its escalating insanity, its fresh perspective and stellar casting ensure a coming-of-age comedy that adds something vital to the genre. Read full review
80
VarietyOwen GleibermanMar 11, 2018
Blockers isn’t really about these girls losing their virginity. It’s about how they seize control of their destinies, one triumphantly lewd zinger at a time. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMar 11, 2018
It plays to the strengths of its performers, from screen novices to the comic vet of the cast, Leslie Mann, who may never have had this good a showcase. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerApr 4, 2018
If there's one error, it's that there are almost too many laughs. Cannon keeps the pace up, and some of the smart one-liners from the script by Brian and Jim Kehoe get stamped on in the race for the next gag. Read full review
75
UproxxAmy NicholsonApr 6, 2018
The film adores Cena’s sentimental brute who has hams for calves and kitten GIFs for brains. Read full review
75
The PlaylistWill AshtonApr 6, 2018
Blockers is the kind of movie that Hollywood typically gets wrong. They make it too crude or too wild or too inconsiderate. Thankfully, Blockers is an unexpected triumph, even if it’s not quite as great as it could’ve been. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJake CoyleApr 5, 2018
The antic chemistry between Mann, Cena and Barinholtz is stellar. Together, they capture the panic, embarrassment and sentimentality of young-adult parenthood as they scramble after their kids, none of whom need saving. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorApr 5, 2018
For all its loud signalling of raunch ahead, Blockers is funnier that you might expect: It’s a reliable laugh machine that features enough jabs at contemporary mores, alongside a discreet social conscience and some successfully female-centric comedy, that it rises above the inevitable chug-and-vomit jokes. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 5, 2018
Although the movie’s foremost goal is to deliver big laughs, it gets points for taking seriously the trauma of parents who, after nurturing and caring for their children over an 18-year period, are forced to let go. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 5, 2018
A little of Barinholtz goes a pretty good distance for me, but sharing scenes with Mann (who has the timing of a wizard) and blocklike Cena (funny just standing there, with his “cop haircut” and perpetually aghast reactions), he’s what the movie needs: a relaxed wildcard. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 5, 2018
If you want to know what a culture thinks it thinks, watch drama. But if you want to know how it really thinks, watch comedy. Watch, for example, Blockers, which is exuberant in its crudeness and coarseness. It’s where comedy is now, and it’s very funny. Read full review
75
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonApr 4, 2018
Mostly what lurks around the edge of the action isn’t danger, but affection. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 4, 2018
Don't get me wrong – the movie lays on the raunch, and there are more gut-busting laughs than you can count. But no one gets objectified or patronized. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerApr 3, 2018
The comedy Blockers, which is not written, produced, or directed by Apatow but feels descended from some of his work, sets for itself a more ambitious challenge, daring itself to give each member of its ensemble a coming-of-age arc, and to pull off two different high-concept comedies at once in the process. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnMar 11, 2018
There’s an innocence to this premise that lends freshness to every vulgar turn. Read full review
72
Paste MagazineDom SinacolaApr 5, 2018
If the film’s direction is workmanlike and the writers’ plotting flimsy, then the better to focus on the cast. They’re a joy to watch together. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekApr 9, 2018
Blockers has a loopy sweetness, but it’s smart, too. Read full review
70
VoxAlissa WilkinsonApr 5, 2018
For the most part, it works. Blockers isn’t groundbreaking or particularly memorable. As comedies go, it’s pretty standard fare. But its characters and performances keep it light on its feet, even when the writing gets clunky. Read full review
70
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoMar 14, 2018
Blockers sells itself as a parents-first warpath comedy, but the true treat here is watching a trio of young women navigate sex-comedy narratives that boys have dominated for far too long. Read full review
67
ConsequenceRandall ColburnMar 11, 2018
Director Kay Cannon‘s perspective is the film’s biggest asset, as it freshens up the traditional formula’s inevitable focus on love, consent, and orientation in ways that maintain the sub-genre’s trademark raunch. Read full review
65
The AtlanticDavid SimsApr 6, 2018
Blockers ends up being a mirror-image coming-of-age film, where the kids have to help the adults make some grand realizations. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchKatie WalshApr 5, 2018
It takes a while to rev up, but Blockers is often laugh-out-loud funny, thanks to the cast — you just wish they all had a little more to work with. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTom RussoApr 4, 2018
As nifty as any of it is a witty, touching story thread about Adlon’s trepidatious geek wrestling with her sexual orientation even as she wrestles with peer pressure to hop into bed. And guess what? She and the movie make the smart call. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayApr 4, 2018
Blockers suffers from ungainly, choppy pacing. It feels like a slapdash collection of scenes rather than a balloon sent smoothly aloft, with jokes often falling as flat as Cena’s buzz cut (a running gag centers on his tough-guy character’s propensity for crying, a go-to bit that ages fast). Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 3, 2018
“Pitch Perfect” writer turned first-time director Kay Cannon makes some of these big moments pay off, and delivers the sweetest, most sensitive “coming out” scene at the prom that you can imagine. What Cannon can’t do is keep this picture from stopping cold every fifteen minutes or so, sensitive moments that kill the comic momentum and make us notice that the kid actors aren’t in the same charisma league as the grownups. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMar 11, 2018
There are some decent ideas for a comedy in Blockers, and some very funny scenes from a cast with rock-solid comic timing, but the movie was either rewritten one too many times or one too few. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 5, 2018
Blockers, for all its high-velocity raunch and drug abuse, is fundamentally positive. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisApr 5, 2018
It features a casually diverse cast and is openly, at times dutifully, feminist, with you-go-girl speeches that sound as if everyone involved had tried too hard to be decent. Funny and enlightened would have been better. Read full review
60
The GuardianMonica CastilloMar 12, 2018
Despite an element of gross bodily fluid-laden gags, Blockers manages to be heartfelt and endearing – even if the film’s message is sometimes heavy handed. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesDusty SomersApr 5, 2018
Much of this is amiable in the moment, but the movie lumbers from set piece to set piece with only the barest of plausible connecting threads. The film’s sense of physical comedy is woeful, relying more on the suggestion of humor than competent blocking or editing. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangApr 5, 2018
What derails Blockers in the end is a curious lack of imagination, an inability to think beyond the raunch-com genre's most sentimental clichés. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 5, 2018
Blockers becomes less interesting and less funny as the onscreen hijinks grow more outlandish and stupid and demeaning and crotch-oriented. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonApr 2, 2018
Viswanathan, Newton, and Adlon generate a bit of chemistry throughout, but it's undermined by the fundamentally mechanistic nature of Brian and Jim Kehoe's screenplay, which ultimately forces these girls' experiences into neat little scenarios that are constructed every bit as didactically as a workplace training video. Read full review
38
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiApr 5, 2018
Blockers is the latest example of the millennium’s most dispiriting film trend: Stupid drunk people making stupid drunk decisions for two stupid hours. Read full review
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