From the team that brought you “Super Troopers” and “Beerfest” comes yet another raunchy R-rated comedy.
However, the college-aged crowd doesn’t seem to be the focus of comedy troupe Broken Lizard in this case; instead, their newest film, “The Babymakers,” is directed toward post-college age adults who are now dealing with issues such as marriage and children.
Perhaps they’re attempting to follow their fans into adulthood or reach a wider audience, but this market is not a good choice for Broken Lizard. They should stick to what they do best, as proven by the cult-like success of their previous films and leave the romantic comedies alone.
That said, I don’t think this movie deserves quite the amount of negative feedback it has received. The film currently has a nine percent on RottenTomatoes.com, and its box office results were extremely disappointing.
There is some foundation for this unenthusiastic response. In many cases I wasn’t sure whether the movie was taking itself seriously or not, and some scenes are so random and over-the-top they almost made me regret watching.
For example, there is an excruciatingly long scene toward the end of the film in which one of the main cast is repeatedly slipping in a giant pile of semen. There’s also some mildly offensive humor with homosexual stereotypes and an adopted Chinese girl named Jackie Chan.
Overall, though, the actors do a decent job with what they’re given. Paul Schneider (“Parks and Recreation,” “Lars and the Real Girl”) and “Attack of the Show!” veteran Olivia Munn work well with the script, even though they seem aware of its ludicrousness.
The two play a couple who have been married for three years and are discussing having children. Munn’s character, Audrey, brings up the subject during their anniversary dinner, and after initially mistaking the talk for hints toward anal sex, Tommy (Schneider) is on board with the idea.
After pursuing it for months, however, Audrey and Tommy are met with no results, and they’re bored with trying. Everyone in the couple’s life begins to immediately assume the issue is Tommy’s fault. This leads to the beginning of his exaggerated paranoia regarding his manhood that lasts throughout the film.
They finally seek medical help, and Tommy discovers he has an extremely low sperm count. Even though Audrey seems ready to deal with the issue, Tommy insists the doctor must be wrong. In his defense, he confesses to donating sperm for months in order to pay for Audrey’s engagement ring, proving he must have viable goods.
But when the couple arrives at the sperm bank to recover the rest of Tommy’s old sperm they discover there is only one “batch” left, and it’s promised to a couple. Tommy panics, convinced Audrey will divorce him if he can’t provide her with the children she wants so badly.
This is when he and his two friends, Wade (Kevin Heffernan, “Super Troopers”) and Zig-Zag (Nat Faxon, “Ben and Kate”) – probably the two worst characters in the movie – plan to steal the last batch from the sperm bank before it’s used Monday.
The rest of the film involves their quest for the last batch, a team-up with an ex-member of the Indian mafia (played by director Jay Chandrasekhar) and an extremely long scene during which Tommy is carrying the sperm and being chased by the police.
If the entire movie was downplayed about 50 percent, it could be really good. It’s obvious there are creative people on the project, but somehow the delivery failed completely.
If you can look past the oddly juvenile adult humor, this has the potential to be an enjoyable movie, and I’d recommend it to anyone with lowered standards and time to waste.
Just don’t go into it expecting much.