Last night I watched the movie ”Prom Dates,” which came out exclusively on Hulu May 4. This movie is a comedy about two girls who do not have a date for their high school prom. The first of the two main characters, Jess (Antonia Gentry), was just cheated on. She desperately wants a date to avoid seeming like she’s alone. Meanwhile, Jess’ friend Hannah (Julia Lester) dumps her boyfriend because she (Hannah) openly admits to Jess that she is gay and is seeking to find a new date who is also gay. They go on a hectic run to find two new dates for their prom that happens the very next night. Wild events occur during the next 24 hours where they drastically try to find their dates in the limited time that they have. “Prom Dates” is a very easy watch with a very simple, basic plot, but it’s still a fun movie with funny moments that’s entertaining to watch. This wasn’t the most plot heavy or long movie at all with a run time of 80 minutes.
This movie was kinda wild. From the start, it seems like a normal, typical prom movie — but it has really extreme moments. There are a lot of obscure events that happened that I thought were really funny making this movie a lot funnier. For instance, the two girls go to a frat party in an attempt to find dates and face wild, funny interactions with people at the party. I would warn people that this is an R rated movie. There are many sexual scenes and vulgar use of words throughout this film so if that’s something you are not comfortable with, I would not recommend “Prom Dates.”
I wouldn’t rate this movie very highly, though, because there’s nothing special about it. We didn’t get that much insight on the characters, nor did we receive a very interesting or descriptive plot. The film goes straight into the two girls finding dates and the crazy events that happen along the way — however, I enjoy movies where I don’t have to focus that much on what’s going on because I just wait for something to happen. Something that I appreciated about the movie is that I could just relax and enjoy the obscure, funny and entertaining moments that make the movie what it is. The whole point of this movie is not making you think very hard about what’s going on. It was a very visual movie with a lot of lights, mostly in part scenes, making the movie interesting in what was going on.
I enjoyed the attention grabbing aspect of the film. There were so many scenes that seemed out of things that could only happen in movies where you can create obscure scenes. How wild these scenarios are is the point of the movie. . Some examples of this is when Hannah was hooking up with some random girl just to find out they were related, or when Jess was about to be killed by a cannibal who she was about to hook up with.
This movie goes at a really fast pace for being a relatively short movie for immediate they pick up with the action in the movie. We get a quick recap of the situation between the two characters and we just get a little glimpse of who they are moving straight into the action of the movie. It is a very quick set up to them losing their dates for prom to immediately going to a party to find new ones. It felt like lazy writing, because to be fair, without the comedic moments or entertaining scenes, the acting from the two actresses was very basic. Some, maybe not most viewers, would dislike these types of movies. I would agree as well (to an extent) if this movie wasn’t so gosh darn funny.
Another issue that I have is that it is only available on Hulu. I have the privilege to be able to have Hulu to watch this movie but if you don’t have Hulu, then you’re out of luck. I think it is really unfair to be restricted from watching a movie because you don’t have access to a certain streaming service. Otherwise, you would have to pay for a subscription just to be able to watch the movie. I would rather it just be a movie that is streaming on these streaming services and also available in the movie theaters so that the public can watch this film and enjoy it without being restricted.
Overall I thought this was a good movie even though there was nothing special about it. There were a lot of comedic scenes, which I thought were really funny. This is a movie I would definitely watch again for just how entertained I was with the movie — however, I could see some people who want a more detailed plot and storyline who would not want to watch this movie. This type of movie, even for being a comedy, would not appeal to people who are looking more for a more detailed plot or the acting in this movie that just felt bland between the two main actresses who play in this movie.
In addition, the fact that this “Prom Dates” is only available on Hulu is disappointing. With all said and done, I thought it was a very amusing film.
“Prom Dates:” ★★★★☆
