The Babymakers (C+)

If someone had traveled back in time to five days ago before I watched Jay Chandrasekhar's crudely comedic sperm bank heist flick, and informed me that not only I find the film to be a pleasant surprise, but would also find it whole heartedly enjoyable, I probably would've written them off as crazy in an instant. An entire movie based off a single bodily fluid couldn't possibly work, especially if directed by the same man whose other major directing credit belongs to the 2005 Johnny Knoxville/Seann William Scott reboot The Dukes of Hazard. Currently residing with an abysmal 8% on the usually reliable Rotten Tomatoes, The Babymakers is an almost universally hated: An endless spree of raunchy, unfunny gags which nonexistent connective tissue to hold it all together. Yet, despite all the warning signs involved, while admittedly flawed, I found it to be a frequently hilarious unanticipated treat.



Paul Schneider and Olivia Munn star as a couple whose inability to conceive (as result of testicular trauma; otherwise known as getting hit in the genitalia to an unhealthy abnormal degree) causes a mild rift in their loving relationship. However, rather than following rational thought and simply adopt, Schneider and pals, played by Broken Lizard alum Kevin Heffernan and Nat Faxon, use the typical idiotic raunchy comedy logic in resolving to hire a psychotic Indian mobster performed by the scene stealing director Jay Chandrasekhar to rob a sperm bank where Schneider had made a deposit years earlier. The plot is absolutely, for lack of a better word, bonkers, but as the jokes come at such a high speed, rapid fire pace it's difficult not to enjoy yourself. There's no subtext, no message, and only the flimsiest of morals ("Be honest to those you love"), but the humor is almost enough to carry the film through its somewhat overlong 98 minute runtime.

However, for what is essentially proposed to be, as a character states in the film, a sperm bank job, the titular heist is nothing short of an extremely disappointing, anti-climatic letdown. The sequence is short on any type of suspense, but the lack of anxiety would be slightly acceptable if the humor wasn't so severely lacking. An enjoyably intense character jarringly shifts into an unlikable incompetent buffoon for a mediocre masturbation gag, a member of the group unexpectedly exits without any payoff, and the worst offender of all is an absolutely revolting, completely unfunny recurring joke in which an obese man is repeatedly soaked with frozen semen. While everything before this point was enjoyably raunchy, this scene cranked the repulsion up to 11; causing many groans and barely a laugh.

Up until its absolutely unfunny, disgusting conclusion, Chandrasekhar completed the difficult task of constructing a consistently hilarious comedy based almost solely around a bodily function; succeeding where the mighty fart family film, Thunderpants, failed. Despite one gigantic flaw, The Babymakers is certainly a lot better than its pathetic 8% makes it appear to be.

Grade: C+


Note: Sadly, I failed to mention Jay Chandrasekhar's hilariously unhinged performance as former Indian mafioso Ron Jon as much as I hoped in this review. Even in the film's darkest moments, Chandrasekhar brought an insane amount of unpredictability which kept the feature not only entertaining, but laugh out loud funny. Hopefully we'll be seeing more of him in front of the camera soon.