The Babymakers

Watch Movies TV -***DISCLAIMER*** The following review is entirely my opinion. If you comment (which I encourage you to do) be respectful. If you don't agree with my opinion (or other commenters), that's fine. To each their own. These reviews are not meant to be statements of facts or endorsements, I am just sharing my opinions and my perspective when watching the film and is not meant to reflect how these films should be viewed. Finally, the reviews are given on a scale of 0-5. 0, of course, being unwatchable. 1, being terrible. 2, being not great. 3, being okay. 4, being great and 5, being epic! And if you enjoy these reviews feel free to share them and follow the blog or follow me on Twitter (@RevRonster) for links to my reviews and the occasional live-Tweet session of the movie I'm watching! I think there's enough babies in the world right now we don't need no more makers.

The Babymakers – 1 out of 5

I really like Jay Chandrasekhar’s work as a director and as a comedic performer.  His work with the rest of his Broken Lizard cohorts is fantastic and, together, they have made some great cult classic comedies.  The Babymakers isn’t an official Broken Lizard feature but it is directed by Chandrasekhar and has some familiar actors from the Broken Lizard’s films in it (and it even features Broken Lizard Kevin Heffernan).  I’ve been meaning to watch this since it came out in 2012 but, after checking it out, I probably could have just avoided this one altogether.

Sorry, Jay.  But I have high hopes for Super Troopers 2.

While celebrating their wedding anniversary, Tommy (Paul Schneider) and Audrey Macklin (Olivia Munn) decide they want to have a baby.  However, after a year of trying, they are no closer to getting pregnant.  Discovering that Tommy’s sperm isn’t cutting the mustard, the two search for an alternative and Tommy confesses that, in order to get the money needed for a ring, he donated sperm—his healthy sperm.  Finding out that his very last donation is on the verge of being given to a donor, he gathers his friends Wade (Kevin Heffernan) and Zig-Zag (Nat Faxon) and team up with a criminal by the name of Ron Jon (Chandrasekhar) and decide to rob the sperm bank.

Nothing weirder than when the pet is in the room.

All movies are subjective.  What resonates with one doesn’t always resonate with others and sometimes I feel the need to add this disclaimer—mostly in the cases of comedies.  This is one of those genres that are easily polarizing because a sense of humor is such grand spectrum.  With that being said, I’m sure some people found The Babymakers funny and this feature definitely has an audience but, for me, I just found it really hard to watch.  There are actors in the cast I love and the premise has the potential to be something goofy and funny (with a big dash of raunchy) but I ended up finding a movie that was just grating to watch and something that felt like it was always overshooting the mark and missing the joke.

Damn Peeping Farvas.

Every joke, gag and comedic sequence in this film felt like they were trying too hard.  Each of these moments feel like a person spastically grasping at the part that is logically supposed to be funny and then immediately goes overboard in an attempt to make it wackier.  It made all the humorous moments pretty cringe-worthy because it looked like a comedian bombing on stage and frantically trying to get themselves out of the hole they were stuck in but, instead of improving their situation, they were just digging themselves deeper.  Every joke that just didn’t feel like it was landing was double-downed upon and given extra emphasis.  It was as if the thinking was if they just go bigger or more obnoxiously toward the gag, the funnier it would be or the more distracting it would become and the audience wouldn’t notice that what just happened reeked of more effort than comedy.  There were a couple of moments that I did chuckle at but, for the most part, I just was silent as I winced at the attempted humor.

In case you're wondering, yes, there is a scene where a guy slips on semen.
It's that kind of movie.

Ultimately, however, the one thing that really killed this comedy for me was its leading man; Paul Schneider.  His performance isn’t terrible but the man lacked the charm and the likability to be the film’s focus.  The character already has to ride the line of being both a tad on the scuzzy side and also kinda likeable (I mean he’s going to rob a sperm back for crying out loud).  However, Schneider’s portrayal makes the character feel like a douche bag that is horribly undeserving of his smoking hot wife and lacks any redeeming traits that would otherwise save him face when the misunderstanding comedic bits go down.  Unable to truly get behind and cheer for the film’s leading man ending up harming the rest of the film down the road and made the already cringe-y comedy that much more unbearable.

Maybe it's because I didn't care for Schneider but I didn't see an ounce of
chemistry between these two.

I found some fleeting moments of humor in The Babymakers and I won’t deny that this probably could have been a very entertaining comedy that could have made great use of its unique premise but, sadly, I just couldn’t get into it.  Jay Chandrasekhar did his best to make the material work and some of the best moments in the film involved his character but, in the end, I found this one to be a very forgettable comedy that delivered very few laughs for me.