Film Review: Comedy, Breeding Don’t Mix in Lame ‘The Babymakers’

Submitted by PatrickMcD on August 3, 2012 - 11:24pm

CHICAGO – One of the questions we’re never suppose to ask the married couple without kids is, ‘when are you going to have kids?’ There might be specific reasons that it’s none of your damn business. Surprisingly, there is a whole so-called comedy based on this question and answer. Olivia Munn goes kid hatching in ‘The Babymakers.’

Rating: 2.0/5.0

No matter how you slice the subject of infertility, it simply isn’t the right story line for a comic romp, especially an unfunny one. Two members of Broken Lizard, the cult comedy group – Kevin Heffernan and Jay Chandrasekhar (who also directs) – give themselves up filming and supporting a domestic tale about a couple who cannot conceive. It becomes a heist film, because what they need to steal is so unlikely that it hardly bears mentioning. Okay, it’s seminal fluid from a sperm bank. That will have ‘em rolling in the aisles.

Tommy (Paul Schneider) and Audrey (Olivia Munn) are celebrating their third anniversary by reminding each other that it’s time to have a baby. After a pointless montage of them having sex (with clothes on, Olivia’s non-nudity clause don’t you know) there still isn’t a bun in the oven. They seem to share this information with the whole world, including Tommy’s buds Wade (Kevin Heffernan) and the wacky Zig-Zag (Nat Faxon), plus Audrey’s friend Karen (Aisha Tyler).

After a fertility check, it turns out that Tommy has lazy swimmers. But there is a rub. Four years earlier, he had sold his sperm to a clinic to buy Audrey an engagement ring (and they say romance is dead). Tommy and his posse hatch a plan to break into the sperm bank and make a withdrawal. They even hire a thief who hails from India named Ron Jon (Jay Chandrasekhar) to help them plan the scheme. Nothing can go wrong, right?

“The Babymakers” opens everywhere August 3rd. Featuring Olivia Munn, Paul Schneider, Kevin Heffernan, Nat Faxon, Aisha Tyler and Jay Chandrasekhar. Screenplay by Paul Gaulke and Gerry Swallow. Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar. Rated “R”