The Babymakers - Movie Review

Rating: 2 out of 5

What starts out as a smart, sassy comedy about infertility gets bogged down in its own potty humour, ultimately becoming a dull caper romp that's impossible to care about. This is a real shame since the cast is clearly up for something more sophisticated and knowing, and the filmmakers seem to have some amusing ideas up their sleeves.

The film opens as Audrey and Tommy (Munn and Schneider) are celebrating their third anniversary and decide to start a family. When Audrey doesn't get pregnant, tests show that Tommy's low sperm count is to blame, due presumably to too many groin injuries while goofing around with his chucklehead pals (Heffernan and Faxon). But since he had donated to a sperm bank years earlier, he decides to make a withdrawal, only to discover that the last batch has already been sold. So he and his friends hire a crazy-eyed Indian criminal (Chandrasekhar) to orchestrate a heist.

Munn and Schneider are gifted actors who create an engaging sense of chemistry in the feisty first act, grounding the comedy in real marital issues that are riotously funny because of the unexpected frankness of their discussions about sex. But as this starts to drift into a series of one-note gags about semen and genitals, our patience wavers. And then the caper kicks in, and it's so contrived and stupid that we lose all interest in the film and the characters. We may still care about Audrey and Tommy, but the situation they get into is just as idiotic as the people around them.

Essentially, the screenwriters started with a great premise and then ran out of ideas, abandoning the more risky, inventive procreation comedy for corny slapstick and dialog that's supposed to be hilarious just because it's rude. So when they let the break-in sideplot take over the entire movie, they abandon their audience altogether. What's left is an unfunny mess. And a missed opportunity.

Rich Cline

Facts and Figures

Year: 2012

Genre: Comedy

Run time: 95 mins

In Theaters: Friday 24th August 2012

Box Office USA: $5.2k

Distributed by: Millenium Entertainment

Production compaines: Alliance Films, Automatik Entertainment, IM Global

Reviews

Contactmusic.com: 2 / 5

Rotten Tomatoes: 8%
Fresh: 4 Rotten: 45

IMDB: 4.9 / 10

Cast & Crew

Director: Jay Chandrasekhar

Producer: Jason Blum, Jay Chandrasekhar, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones

Screenwriter: Peter Gaulke, Gerry Swallow

Starring: Olivia Munn as Audrey, Aisha Tyler as Karen, Paul Schneider as Tommy, Noureen DeWulf as Bride, Desi Lydic as Julie, Miles Fisher as Groom, Jay Chandrasekhar as Ron Jon, Collette Wolfe as Allison, Wood Harris as Darrell, Helena Mattsson as Tanya, M.C. Gainey as Officer Malloy, Kevin Heffernan as Wade, Constance Zimmer as Mona, Nat Faxon as Zig-Zag, Jenica Bergere as Officer Kanani

Also starring: Jason Blum, Peter Gaulke, Gerry Swallow