Helicopter parents act worse than the kids in this ridiculous and hilarious raunchy romp. But apparently it didn’t take much for Director Kate Cannon (Pitch Perfect) to get Leslie Mann (This is 40), John Cena (Trainwreck) and Ike Barinholtz (TV’s The Mindy Project, Neighbors: 2) to be so completely uninhibited. A film about parents trying to prevent their daughters from losing their viriginity on Prom night is material enough, but John Cena dropping trou to do a butt chug is a visual you may never be able to unsee.
Of course, Producers Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and James Weaver (all in on The Disaster Artist, Sausage Party, This is the End and more) thought the story about the besties making a shared sextpact experience needed a woman’s touch. And they said Director Cannon had so many great ideas. They also decided to change the original story from three Dads to 2 Dads and a Mom picking Mann as lynchpin Lisa, to hold it all together no matter how crazy it got. It gets pretty crazy. Mann had a personal stake in doing this film. She just sent her own daughter off to college.
This is one wacko script written by brothers Brian and Jim Kehoe. It’s outrageous, crude, gross. But it’s also well paced and smart, touching on all the issues parents and kids think about. They include teen sex, drugs, alcohol, friendships, social media, gay acceptance, inappropriate behavior of all kinds. But there are some funny as well as touching bits hovering around single, absent and strict parenting.
Mann’s propeller as the ultimate helicopter Mom is in full rotation. She’s the single Mom who is not ready to lose her best friend/daughter to become an empty nester. She also finds out that her Julie (Kathryn Newton –Lady Bird, Three Billboards, TV’s Big Little Lies) may not be staying as close to home for college as Lisa thinks. Julie wants to follow her boyfriend, Austin, (Graham Phillips-Secrets and Lies, The Good Wife.) to UCLA. He’s not only cute, he’s a nice kid and really cares for Julie.
John Cena is a character without even having to play one. As Mitchell, the father of Kayla, he’s more her coach than her Dad. He and his wife don’t always agree on how he treats her like he’s got her in training. And he doesn’t her to grow up. She’s ready to breakout when Julie comes up with the sexpact plan. She picks a good friend from her Chemistry class to be her target. Connor (Miles Robbins – Mozart in the Jungle) plays a teen with a man bun and that drives Mitchell crazy. He’s also good at the chemistry of making and supplying recreational drugs to his friends. Kayla’s experimentation with it is as amusing as it is somewhat scary. Connor’s basically harmless but this might still give the parents cause to worry.
There’s good chemistry between all the parents, but Ike Barinholtz is a standout. As Hunter, he’s is the absent Dad who wants to make up for lost time with his shy, reserved daughter, Sam, (Gideon Adlon in her first feature film). He tries way too hard, but Barinholtz is enormously entertaining even when he does it all wrong. His arsenal of facial expressions is vast and he uses it well. He can be a buffoon while showing true but subtle emotion and here, he’s more tuned in to these kids’ lifestyle than Lisa and Mitchell. He knows what all the kids’ text abbreviations stand for and why they might be disturbing. He also knows his daughter better than anybody gives him credit for.
Sam, trying to keep up with her best friends, decides to join the sexpact with dorky Chad (Jimmy Bellinger – TV’s The Middle). He goes along with the program for the fun of it, being very naive himself. In the meantime, Sam thinks she might interested in another classmate who happens to be the same gender.
Prom Night is a series of chases by the parents to prevent their kids from getting laid. When they end up in a ditch with the hood straight up in the air, there were plenty of laughs for Mann, Cena and Barinholtz. But there were even more improv throughout the film from these talented comics.
Director Cannon must’ve had fun setting up party after party with a cast of hundreds, if not thousands. There are plenty of scenes set up for shock value including teens vomiting on their classmates. And there’s nudity. There are scenes of one of the teen’s oversexed parents in action. Be warned, you will see more of Gary Cole than you have ever seen before. And John Cena bending over in a beer chug contest will forever live in your memory. A WWE wrestling icon, he’s been scantily dressed before and in movies as well. Doesn’t seem to phase him at all, but it may even make a proctologist uncomfortable to watch.
This is a sexy, gross take on the relationships of parents and kids as they grow up and out. It could have been very sappy and trite, but it is neither because it is smartly written and directed. The casting is great and the comedic timing is excellent. It may be too gross for some and we heard nervous as well as belly laughter. Don’t be a blocker. Just go with the flow and you’ll have a good time.
Universal Pictures 1 hour 42 minutes R Reviewed April 5, 2018
