It’s been about three years since we’ve had an opportunity to view new material from the Broken Lizard crew and with Jay Chandrasekhar’s (Beerfest, Super Troopers) upcoming film, The Babymakers, set to release in theaters and on VOD on August 3rd, we’re only part of the way there as this flick only features half of the iconic comedic team.
Audrey (Olivia Munn) and Tommy (Paul Schneider) are a young and happily married couple celebrating their third anniversary. It was decided early on that when their third anniversary rolled around that it was time to set the baby making in motion. After nine months of trying, they’ve both come to the conclusion that’s something is wrong, Tommy’s sperm is clearly defective. In a desperate attempt to avoid any strains in their relationship, Tommy remembers that he once donated sperm five years ago and decides that the only way to save his marriage is if he breaks into the sperm bank and steals back his old and potent seed. With the help of his friends and an Indian Mafioso, the trio commences Operation Desert Sperm to save Tommy’s future family.
I’ll say it right now, don’t expect this to be anything like a true Broken Lizard film because it’s not. There are glimmers of their comedic style sprinkled throughout but it doesn’t really shine through until the final minutes of the film. Instead, the leads, Olivia Munn and Paul Schneider, come off unconvincingly in their comedic delivery and part of that is the scripts fault. Both the content and delivery seems so matter-of-fact raunchy that I felt like they were just throwing a line out there and hoped that one of them would generate a laugh.
Besides lacking consistent laughs, the main issue with the film is that the sperm job doesn’t even become a factor until halfway into the film. It’s such a great premise for a film but most of the runime is wasted on getting us to that point. The first half is all about the couple having sex, people giving advice and Tommy living in denial/bitching about Audrey’s inability to get pregnant. This goes on for about 45-50 minutes. Once Operation Desert Sperm starts to take shape that’s when things get much more interesting and you begin to chuckle a bit more. I guess what I’m saying is either make the film shorter or expand the part about robbing the sperm bank because that’s when I laughed the hardest and that’s when the true Broken Lizard style emerg
ed.
Everyone ends up giving decent performances but the only characters that truly end up delivering the laughs are Chandrasekhar, Nat Faxon and Kevin Heffernan, which I’m sure you could have guessed yourselves. Oh, and how awesome is the name of their operation? Props to whoever came up with that one, it’s brilliant!
While personally disappointing, I still think many people who aren’t avid fans of Broken Lizard will actually find The Babymakers to be a pretty entertaining and easygoing weekend flick to watch. It’s not reinventing the wheel with the way the story progresses and it feels like half an effort but the idea is original enough to pull in any individual or couple with the slightest bit of curiosity as to how it all might turn out-it got me in the chair.
Rating: When the sperm job goes down, that’s when the fun starts, but until then it’s mostly blah (5/10)
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