He Said-Slammin' Salmon

As a relatively mild Broken Lizard fan, I have to say that I quite enjoyed their newest movie. I really dug the humor of this movie, because it was very similar to that almost awkward Step Brothers, mostly courtesy of Michael Clarke Duncan’s Cleon Salmon.  The other guys from Broken Lizard are performing in top-notch condition.  They have been working together so long that their scripts and improvisation flows seamlessly.  Now saying that, it is not my favorite one of their films.  If Super Troopers is my favorite this one ties with Beerfest as second place. It might be that they have done so much good stuff in the past that it sometimes pales in comparison. The other thing could be Kevin Heffernan, who took to the director’s chair for the first time.  This lead to a lot of weird issues with pacing and the kind of jokes, but it’s never enough to take away from the enjoyment of the movie. The characters were not necessarily cliché but they felt familiar.  As always the whole troupe change styles of characters between films.  That being said, I did love Jay Chandrasekhar’s character Nuts/Zongo.  This guy has some of the funniest movies and might just be my favorite from this group. 

The story is pretty thin, being a mere catalyst for the crazy hijinks that ensue. This is one of the aspects of comedies I can forgive, especially in non-Judd Apatow movies.  I have never subscribed that every movie should be reviewed based on all of the usual merits that Oscar worthy movies are.  Sometimes a movie can work if it’s hilarious, sometimes a movie can work if it scares the crap out of you, or make you laugh a lot, anything else that’s good is icing on the cake.  With that said, given the audience at the screening was bursting out laughing I’d say this movie succeeds.  With closing thoughts I recommend this movie for people that have seen too many depressing dramatic movies like Jonesy and I have, or fans of Broken Lizard’s brand of humor should see this movie.