Olivia Munn's BABYMAKERS - Now On Demand → On Demand Weekly

Olivia Munn’s BABYMAKERS - Now On DemandAugust 03, 2012

Millennium

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand and from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: BABYMAKERS (Millennium).

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BABYMAKERS

By Melissa Chesman

Lower your expectations. A strange comment for what most feel is low-brow humor to start – but lower your expectations, yes, from there.

THE BABYMAKERS premise of a sperm-bank robbery + Broken Lizard’s raunchy, envelope-pushing humor should equal a slam-dunk for this team of comedic artists known for their unique brand of coarse fun. Instead, the anticipation of what could and should be, far out-weighs what is.

THE BABYMAKERS story centers on married couple Tommy & Audrey’s (Paul Schneider & Olivia Munn) plight to conceive their first child. When it is discovered that Tommy’s sperm count is just faaaarrr too low for any amount of wild nights planned and crazy wives’ tale remedies suggested, Tommy reveals that he was a continual sperm donor – with GOOD sperm - prior to the pair’s marriage.

However, all but one batch of Tommy’s “good” sperm is gone from the bank and that last lot is ear-marked for a couple absolutely unwilling to part with it. Before the remaining bit of Tommy’s prized sperm is lost forever to artificial insemination, Tommy and his friends (Kevin Heffernan, Wood Harris and Nat Faxon) with the help of an Indian mobster (Jay Chandrasekhar) concoct a plan to steal back the good swimmers, make a baby happen and save Tommy’s marriage.

Apart from Jay Chandrasekhar’s show-stealing performance, THE BABYMAKERS offers few memorable moments. Instead of the extreme and often surprising characters Broken Lizard is known for, the thin plot and underwhelming antics feel been-there-done-that phoned in.

Paul Schneider and Olivia Munn do pull off a believable happy couple overcoming anxiety to a satisfactory end, but deferring to a rom-com ideal is to the detriment of what is expected from a Broken Lizard comedy. The result: a script and performances that could have made a great TV episode, but can’t fill a feature.

Written by Peter Gaulke and Gerry Swallow (best known for co-penning Ice Age: The Meltdown), THE BABYMAKERS is therefore not quite a true Broken Lizard production, but Jay Chandrasekhar has resumed his role as director. This most recent let-down (think Slammin’ Salmon) by a talented team that made such an indelible mark with early efforts like Puddle Cruiser and Super Troopers is hopefully not an indication of what Broken Lizard offers next.

Unless you have very low expectations in place, SKIP IT.

- Melissa Chesman

Melissa Chesman is a new contributing writer to On Demand Weekly. Currently she is a freelance writer/producer and VP of Development for New York City based production company, Raw Digital. Formerly, Melissa has been a production, development and marketing executive for many NYC based companies such as: Fine Line Features, New Line Cinema, Redeemable Features and Chimera Films.