Prom Dates

The 2018 blocker's movie was way funnier and had a better cast.

Prom Dates: The Movie is a complete disaster from start to finish. The plot is incredibly cliché and predictable, featuring all the usual high school stereotypes and overused tropes. The acting is wooden and unconvincing, making it hard to feel any real connection to the characters. The dialogue is cringe-worthy and filled with cheesy one-liners that fall flat every time. The pacing is slow and uneven, leaving viewers feeling bored and disinterested. Overall, Prom Dates: The Movie is a forgettable and poorly executed film that offers nothing new or exciting to the teen romance genre."

I'm probably not the intended audience for a teen comedy, being a full-grown adult, but I watch them sometimes, because the teen comedies we had when I was a kid were not exactly inclusive. I found this movie funny, I think the lead characters were wonderful, the leads were convincing as best friends, beautifully supportive, and just silly enough to keep the film overall on the funny side, despite some heavier topics.

When I was the right age for this film, the only film with even some teenaged lgbtq+ characters was the film Heavenly Creatures. It was not a comedy, and it didn't have a happy ending. I wish this film, and some other lgbtq+ focused teen films had existed back then. You don't have to be queer to see the humour of this film, because most characters are straight, but it does add an element of "yeah, relatable" to this story. Also, yes, there's alcohol, drugs and all kinds of inappropriate things going on, but who cares, this is fiction, a comedy, and for once, it's from the girls' point of view.

Jess (Antonia Gentry) and Hannah (Julia Lester) are two friend who many years ago made a blood pact to have the perfect prom and now, hours before the big night, they struggle in finding dates after breaking up with the ones they had.

Director Kim O. Nguyen has very little to offer in her first feature film other than a creativity-free zone. Prom Dates is a movie where its few redeemable aspects in no way make up for its many lacks. As a comedy it goes without saying it aims at humor, but alas, the "comedy" in the movie is nowhere to be found, on the contrary, it often had the opposite effect rendering the whole endeavor a humor-free zone. The characters are all unidimensional and unlikeable in every sense of the word, they go in their lives making uncalled sexual advances bordering abuse and when things do not go the way they want gratuitous violence is they preferred response. Like many teen comedies, its humor many times borders bad taste and manages to elicit anything but laughs. Hannah's proclivity towards vomiting is distasteful, to say the least. To aggravate things further, it has some musical numbers that will make you melancholic about the times when you had to at least try to sing well in order to sing a song. The song where Greg (Kenny Ridwan) proposes Hannah to be his prom date is terrible.

Sexuality is an explored concept in Prom Dates, but the many jokes at the expense of Hannah where a correlation is draw between clothe preferences and sexual orientation, as if being LGBTQIA+ equated certain dress code, is equally simplistic in its stereotyped belief as it is untasteful. As previously said, it has very few redeemable aspects. It is unfunny, badly written, with bad performances, lacking any profundity and plausibility, full of stereotypical characters, and promotes gender violence. It is terrible and definitely one of the worst movies of 2024.

Prom Dates hit Hulu on May 3rd and is a nice buddy comedy to kick off the summer. The movie stars Julia Lester and Antonia Gentry as two best friends who have been dreaming of the perfect prom since they were 13 years old. As fate would have it, they find themselves 24 hours away from the big day dateless and willing to do anything and everything they need to have the prom of their dreams.

I would classify this as a very fun and hilarious buddy comedy. It is filled with over the top and sometimes gross jokes that mostly hit, and I overall enjoyed it. If you are looking for a classy movie that is a contender for any awards, I recommend looking elsewhere because that is not what this film delivers. However, if you are looking for a fun watch with lots of laughs, then Prom Dates may just be what you are looking for.

So I gotto admit I'm the occasional sucker for teenage comedies. Hence, once in a while I check some out. This one did not particularly stand out, but it was one of these nights where you just wanna have some dumb fun.

Storywise, we are faced with two teenage girls who made a pact to have prom dates. Sounds even dumber when you spell it out.

Well, the leads were instantly likable and had great chemistry. Other characters did not stand out in any way (with the exception of maybe Vodka Heather...), but were kind of hyper stereotypes. Quite strange in the context of this particular coming of age story.

The movie did not look cheap. The acting was fine. The editing was tight and followed genre conventions. So from a practical perspective, solid movie work.

In summary, a really silly coming of age comedy with enough quirkyness to keep you entertained.

Being a Disney movie, I find it weird though to contrast queer themes with employing hyper stereotyped characters and resolving conflicts with a little good hearted violence. Nevertheless, I had fun. Enjoy!