Prom Dates

This is another recent raunchy teen comedy that deals with issues faced by the Lgbtq community from a sensitive progressive perspective without losing the edginess expected from the subgenre. And yet again it really nails it.

I'll get what little negative there is to say out of the way quickly. At one point in this it felt like they were running out of material though later stuff reveals they hadn't. Another time it feels like the season finale of a soap opera. And there are a few jokes that punch down.

I understand that some people really hate that this does not completely feel like it takes place in reality. The excellent Youtuber Stutterbox recently did a video on the movie Bottoms where he points out that it's not exactly how it happened that we're seeing, rather it's how it was retold to others.

This is hilarious from start to finish. I'm not sure if it had a bigger budget than Plan B and I can't check right now because my wrists are in too much pain or if it's just that this was able to spend it in a way that is more showy but definitely it has strong production value.

Some characters are broader than others but the acting is all solid. Nobody feels like they're in a different movie. It manages to cover a lot of issues faced by the target demographic especially considering that it's laser focused specifically on prom.

It doesn't shy away from potentially controversial subjects though I can imagine that at least some of them are handled with a tiny bit less care than would be ideal. Most of them I can't speak to but I would definitely say that I did not love the bits about learning disability. 8/10.

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."

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.

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!

Best friends, Hannah (Julia Lester) and Jess (Antonia Gentry), made a pact at 13 to have a great prom with their dates. They are now high school seniors. Jess finds her boyfriend cheating. Hannah's boyfriend is too clingy and she comes out of the closet. The two best friends suddenly find themselves dateless just 24 hours before prom.

The girls are well into their twenties. That's my first impression and the lasting one. I can't ignore it every time they're on the screen. Most of these 'kids' are well into their twenties. Otherwise, this is a fine raunchy teen comedy. It has a lot of the familiar humor. A lot of it works well except these actors are too old. Maybe there are child labor laws involved. Still, they need actors who look like teenagers.