A comedy that never even comes close to shooting its load.
One of the biggest mistakes with any failed comedy is when it’s excruciatingly
boring. No matter how many jokes hit or miss, sometimes good directing,
editing, or simply the joy of a good cast can overcome your biggest hurdles.
With Jay Chandrasekhar, lead member of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe, behind
the camera and in a minor role, you expect far more than we get with his (as
yet) only true blunder, “
The Babymakers.” Even sadder is the fact that he’s roped in
at least one other member, Kevin Heffernan, and a lot of their familiar faces
(M.C. Gainey and Nat Faxon).
Failure abounds in astounding measures as we muddle through the turbulent
relationship of Audrey (Olivia Munn) and Tommy (Paul Schneider) trying to have
a baby after they’ve just celebrated their three-year anniversary. Come to find
out his sperm’s no good, but little does Audrey know, he bought her engagement
ring using “beat off money” from donating sperm. Paul finds out that there’s
one batch left and he recruits his best friends Wade (Heffernan) and Zig-Zag
(Faxon) to pull an “
Ocean’s 11” with the help of Ron Jon (Chandrasekhar) for
$5,000.
Slapstick and more bodily-function jokes than you can shake a stick at to no
effect whatsoever as Chandrasekhar works with one of the worst scripts
imaginable courtesy Peter Gaulke (“
Strange Wilderness,” “
Black Knight,”
“
Say it Isn’t So”)
and Gerry Swallow (“
Black Knight” and “
Say it Isn’t So” again). That resume
alone should tell you what to expect. Olivia Munn is surprisingly the most
sympathetic character of the bunch, with Heffernan’s Wade coming across as the
most brash. While the film may be seeking lowest common denominator guffaws,
there’s one scene in particular that I pray wasn’t a case of adlibbing because
it’s outright racist and offensive to even the most desensitized ears.
Anyone looking for a film filled to the brim with masturbation and
bestiality jokes, along with the cast slip sliding around on a floor covered
with semen look no further. Everyone else can hold out hope for Broken Lizard
to return to form with “
Super Troopers 2” and the long rumored “
Potfest.” In
the meantime, hang on to the glory days of their past comedic successes as even
the fans who didn’t like “
Club Dread” and/or “
The Dukes of Hazzard” will find
absolutely nothing in “
The Babymakers” to fill the void.
The “
Babymakers”
Blu-ray comes courtesy Millenium Media sporting a 1080p presentation that’s
fine for what the film is. No one would ever expect this to shine like a new “
Transformers”
movie. Most of the film takes place during the day where the transfer looks the
best but toward the end scenes come across as too dark resulting in some minor
crush but looks due to Frank G. DeMarco’s cinematography. There’s one instance
where noise crops up and a few cases of shimmer in the wardrobe. Weirdly, the
most annoying aspect is a couple bouts of judder. Like I said, no one expects
this to look like a big summer blockbuster transfer and I won’t be surprised if
anyone but the most ardent Broken Lizard fan seeks it out anyway. The Dolby
TrueHD 5.1 mix is front heavy as expected with almost all modern comedies.
Although there were at least two instances where things came alive in random
moments whenever a car seemed to be driving by. But maybe that was just a case
of my 7.1 system pumping things up more than they were.
As far as special features go, there are four trailers before the film
starts for “
Little
Birds,” “
Bernie,” “
Red Lights,” and “
Intruders.” Clearly Millenium Media is
focusing on low budget affairs and more power to them. There’s also an
unbearably long 19-minute edition of Cast and Crew Interviews, a five minute
Featurette, and an excruciating 11 minute Behind the Scenes consisting of
behind the scenes footage that seem to show that everything on set was as
forced and uninspired as it winds up in the final product. Everything also
seems recycled from one special feature or another. The single-disc Blu-ray
release is available on September 18 but should be considered a Redbox rental
at the very most for only the least discerning viewers.
