Most “prom night” movies strictly follow teen protagonists, but 2018’s Blockers takes a different approach. This time, the parents come to the forefront.

Lisa (Leslie Mann), Mitchell (John Cena) and Hunter (Ike Barinholtz) each have daughters about to graduate from high school. Of course, this means their girls – Julie (Kathryn Newton), Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan) and Sam (Gideon Adlon), respectively – will soon head out for prom night.

This event takes a turn when the parents learn of a “sex pact” among the three girls, one in which they all plan to lose their virginity prom night. In the face of this, Lisa, Mitchell and Hunter launch into action to halt the intended deflowering.

When I first saw a trailer for Blockers in late 2017, I must admit that the title shocked me a little because the film is called Blockers only on a technical level. All the ads prominently featured a graphic of a rooster used in combination with “blockers” to become the intended name: Cock Blockers.

Even by the standards of 2018, a mainstream release won’t get away with that title, and it appears Universal slowly tried to disassociate themselves from the full name. For instance, the Blu-ray art maintains no remnant of the rooster.

Good taste or bad, the crudeness of the title rubbed me the wrong way and led me to assume Blockers would bring nothing but sub-Porky’s crassness. To my surprise, the film actually delivers a pretty terrific comedic experience.

Not that this means it isn’t crass and low-brow, because it is. The movie throws out all sorts of extreme physical humor along with nearly constant profanity and frequent references to various sexual acts.

I usually hate this kind of movie, but beneath the gross-out surface, an insolent, clever heart beats, and that side makes Blockers memorable. I can’t remember the last time a movie entertained me so much via thrown-away lines, but this one comes with a slew of hilarious asides that barely qualify as jokes. They’re meant more as slices of wacky weirdness, and they’re consistently amusing.

Shockingly, even the gross-out material often works. Granted, a scene that revolves around vomit doesn’t really work for me, but the “butt-chugging” sequence delivers unexpected mirth.

A lot of this stems from the cast, as Blockers packs a strong roster of talent. Among the leads, Cena stands out as the most memorable.

The former wrestling star followed the Dwayne Johnson path to Hollywood, and that meant he went with action movies at first – bad action movies, that is. I first saw him in 2009’s 12 Rounds and that role left the impression that Cena lacked personality or talent.

Which seemed accurate – as a dramatic actor. When it came to comedy, Cena got a change to revive his stagnant career with 2015’s Trainwreck, a film in which he played the lead’s semi-boyfriend.

Cena took his chance and ran with it, and the film opened new doors for him. Cena still does dramatic work, but most of his post-Trainwreck oeuvre revolves around funny fare.

And that’s a good thing, because Cena excels. Actually, I didn’t feel impressed by his work in Ferdinand, but that animated film hid Cena’s greatest asset: his malleable face. Cena milks great laughs out of facial expressions and really knocks it out of the park here.

Of course, the rest of the performers do nicely as well, and even the “kids” hold their own among the talented adults. I wish we got more of Hannibal Buress’s Frank, Sam’s stepdad – he’s an understated gem who just doesn’t show up enough for me.

Like any comedy of this sort, Blockers comes with flaws. Pacing can stagger and teeter, and I’m not sure the last time I saw worse shot continuity in a major film.

At least not of this sort. The movie uses a lot of “over the shoulder” shots intended to hide the fact that they dubbed in different lines later – it’s a common technique.

In this case, it’s a distracting technique because the link between the spoken words and the actors’ mouth movements connects so poorly. There must be two dozen shots where it’s obvious the original lines got looped – I can stomach some of this, but after a while, it just seems sloppy.

Despite this criticisms, I really like Blockers. It brings out a clever, rollicking “R”-rated comedy that delights from beginning to end.

Blockers appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Very few concerns cropped up here.

Sharpness was generally solid. A little softness impacted some interiors, but the majority of the movie offered appealing delineation.

Jagged edges and shimmering didn’t occur, and edge enhancement remained absent. Source flaws also failed to present any problems, as the movie offered a clean image.

In terms of colors, the film favored the usual mix of teal and amber. I thought the hues looked fine, as they were solid within the design parameters.

Blacks seemed deep and tight, while shadows were generally good. A few shots appeared somewhat thick, but low-light images were usually pretty nice. I thought this was a consistently high-quality presentation.

As for the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, it seemed satisfactory. It favored the usual “comedy mix” and didn’t present chances for the soundscape to explode.

We did find a few broader scenes – such as at parties – but the track usually opted for stereo music and general environmental material. Though these didn’t seem exciting, they opened up the piece in a satisfying manner.

I thought audio quality appeared positive. Speech seemed distinctive and natural, with no rough tones or other issues.

Score and songs displayed clear, warm music, and effects functioned well. Those elements were reasonably realistic and full throughout the movie, so this ended up as a low-key but workable mix.

Blockers comes with a reasonable mix of extras, and these start with an audio commentary from director Kay Cannon. She brings a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, cast and performances, editing, sets and locations, music and costumes.

On the surface, Cannon touches on a good array of topics, but in reality, she creates a dull commentary. When she talks, she veers toward praise for all involved, and she goes silent an awful lot of the time. I learned a couple of useful nuggets here but not enough to justify the 100-plus minutes of listening required to get to them.

Three Deleted Scenes fill a total of two minutes, 34 seconds. We find “See Ya Later, Suckers” (0:45), “Olds Blocking the Beam” (1:08) and “Rudy ‘The Main Man’ Glover” (0:41).

The first shows a little of Kayla and Sam in school, while “Beam” adds to the parents’ pursuit toward the film’s end. “Rudy” concludes that character’s arc. All three offer amusement – especially “Olds”.

Next comes a two-minute, 39-second Gag Reel. I hoped it’d include alternate lines, and we do find a smidgen of funny improv, but the package mostly shows the usual mistakes and silliness.

Unused takes do appear under Line-O-Rama. It fills seven minutes, 26-seconds and brings a bunch of alternate lines. Many offer very funny moments so this becomes a fun reel.

A featurettes follow, and these launch with Rescue Mission. It goes for five minutes, 14 seconds and includes notes from Cannon, producers Evan Goldberg, James Goldberg and Seth Rogen, executive producer David Stassen, and actors Leslie Mann, John Cena, Ike Barinholtz, and Colton Dunn.

“Rescue” covers a mix of filmmaking topics with no consistent focus. This makes it oddly disjointed but it brings out a few interesting notes.

After this we get Prom Night, a six-minute, 37-second piece with Cannon, Goldberg, Weaver, Rogen, Mann, Barinholtz, Cena, costume designer Sarah Mae Burton, production designer Brandon Tonner-Connolly and actors Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan, Gideon Adlon, Miles Robbins, Jimmy Bellinger, Graham Phillips, and Andrew Lopez. It covers aspects of the movie’s prom recreation and becomes a decent overview.

In a more comedic vein, The History of Sex with Ike Barinholtz lasts two minutes, six seconds. Actually, it gives us a list of facts – though some are wrong – mixed with a humorous tone. It’s fairly forgettable.

Along the same lines, John Cena’s Prom Survival Guide for Parents fills two minutes, 35 seconds and gives us a jokey “prep course” for parents to protect their kids. Like “History”, it seems mildly amusing.

Chug! Chug! Chug! takes up three minutes, 20 seconds and features Barinholtz, Cannon, Cena, Goldberg, Weaver, Rogen, Mann, Viswanathan, and actors Jake Picking and TC Carter. It delivers a few notes about one of the movie’s more outrageous scenes and turns into another decent clip.

Finally, Puke-A-Palooza goes for two minutes, two seconds and includes Cannon, Viswanathan, Dunn, Bellinger, Phillips, Adlon, and Robbins. We learn a bit about shooting scenes with copious amounts of fake vomit in this watchable but superficial reel.

The disc starts with ads for Thoroughbreds, You Look Pretty, Midnight Sun and Gringo. No trailer for Blockers appears here.

A second disc provides a DVD copy of Blockers. It includes the same extras as the Blu-ray.

One might expect the lowest of low-brow comedy from Blockers - and one would occasionally get that form of content. However, most of the movie delivers smart, witty material that the actors deliver with verve and gusto. The Blu-ray brings us good picture and audio along with a decent set of supplements. Along with Game Night, Blockers becomes one of 2018’s best comedies to date.