Title: The Babymakers
Directed by: Jay Chandrasekhar
Starring: Paul Schneider, Olivia Munn and Kevin Heffernan
A comedy lives or dies on it’s humor, plain and simple. If a film under this genre is devoid of any hilarity, then it’s considered to be in some ways a failure. There are many other pieces of the cinematic puzzle that go into place in order to create a movie, but without humor in a comedy then in a way the film has failed. Unfortunately “The Babymakers” falls under that category, a comedy that falters on many levels.
For those of you who may not know, “The Babymakers” centers on couple Tommy (Paul Schneider) and Audrey (Olivia Munn) who have been married for a few years and are ready to start a family. However, that’s not possible when Tommy finds out that he’s unable to give his wife the family that she longs for. After remembering the fact that he once donated his sperm to a sperm bank years ago, he formulates a plan with his friends to rob the joint. Obviously all sorts of mayhem ensues from this debacle.
The saddest thing about “The Babymakers” is that from a skeletal story structure kind of standpoint it’s decent. Heck, it’s bearable in the least, but the main problem doesn’t even present itself as much until way later in the film. For a good hour it feels like it’s there, but nobody’s really worrying about it at that point. Since there isn’t any clear villain of sorts and it just centers on this central problem, one would imagine that it’d be the driving force right off the bat to have our hero go to such great lengths in order to impregnate his wife. Instead we see most, if not all of the characters, slowly mulling about the couples’ situation through two thirds of the film.
The other problem with the script in general is that the dialogue just isn’t working at all. It’s a combination of lackluster punch lines and, dare we say it, bland delivery from most of the cast. It never feels like the whole cast on screen is completely behind the movie to begin with and just punch the snooze button on their performances as a result. You’ve got some of the regular Broken Lizard crew just kind of dialing it in, doing the same old schtick. It’s not that fun to see.
Then there’s the direction which was satisfactory, especially given the fact that the picture was directed by Jay Chandrasekhar. He’s an experienced director who’s entertained us before with several other movies including his most famous, “Super Troopers.” He’s got a set directing style that’s been working for him for years and is still effectve to this day. It’s just a darn shame that the material wasn’t as solid as his direction. That and everything else about the movie is decent from the set design to the overall cinematography no complaints in that region.
In the end “The Babymakers” isn’t a memorable comedy in the slightest. Between the below average story line and performances that this film dishes out, it’s a straight to DVD movie at most.
Story: D-
Acting: D
Direction: C
Technical: C
Overall: D
