Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The Babymakers tries to take elements from a hundred other gross out raunchy comedies and re-hash it again and try to make it funny. Instead, it serves to remind us just how unfunny just being crude and showing nudity can be. There are a group of middle aged men behaving worse than seven year old kids and if you had a group of talented comedians behind that premise it might work, you might laugh despite yourself but no one in this film are talented comedians or actors. Their performances are downright rotten, wooden expressions and just plain awful comedic timing. Stupid pretty much describes everything about this movie. I'm giving it a slightly than zero score simply because I did laugh once or twice and the insane antics and the last scene in the film was actually almost cute but watching the rest of this movie was downright excruciating. How does someone get this crap made? Paul Schneider should be ashamed of this film. He has an extensive background in film and this is simply way beneath him and dragged him. He wasn't the worst member of the cast playing the husband trying to give his wife a baby, but he was dragged down significantly. Olivia Munn who I thought was supposed to be a "rising star" as of late looks like a plastic barbie caught in headlights throughout the whole movie. She delivers her lines like a deadpan fish and shows about as much charisma as a wet towel. Kevin Heffernan is Schneider's best friend in the film and despite some mildly funny physical comedy is mostly wasted with stupid lines and even more stupid antics. Director Jay Chandrasekhar plays Ron Jon, the Indian Mafia man they turn to for help. He could have actually been a funny character but he goes for raunchy and stupid the whole time so he is as wasted as everyone else. He should be ashamed for directing this disaster.Chandrasekhar has a lot of experience as director and writer of all kinds of comedies and TV shows. Its amazing to me that you could direct and co-star in something like this that is so incredibly amateur and think that it was a good idea. This is worse than drivel. It barely passes for entertainment and it certainly isn't funny. Its like watching a group of kids put on a really awful grade school play that happens to be full of nudity, and a constant barrage of stupid masturbation jokes and antics, and a poor attempt at a decent comedy. 3/10

"When they said you couldn't have your sperm back they robbed you of your future and you have every right to go take it back." On their three year anniversary Audrey (Munn) and Tommy (Schneider) decide its time to have a baby. After months and months of trying they end up going to see a specialist. After finding out that he is the problem he freaks out until his friends come up with a plan. They decide to break in to the sperm bank and take back Tommy's deposit. I had pretty high expectations going in to this one and it's mostly my doing. I have been trying to watch movies without seeing the previews for them first in order to not have any preconceived ideas and I say the preview for this one a ton. I will admit that it was still really funny and worth watching but this is another movie where it seems like the funniest parts are in the previews. I'm not saying there are other funny parts because I did laugh throughout but overall I would have to say I was a little disappointed. This is still very much worth watching though. Overall, funny throughout but I was hoping for funnier. I give it a B.

One must approach a Broken Lizard film with the idea that the actors obviously have a lot of fun making these fun, energetic romps. Sometimes more than audiences like watching them. Broken Lizard hit a home run with me when I saw Club Dread, an inspired parody of slasher films with entertaining characters, and I found Super Troopers to be "fun, lively, and good-natured." These characteristics are totally absent in their latest flick, The Babymakers a dirty-minded, prepubescent comedy with repetitive jokes about semen, sperm banks, genitalia, masturbation, sex, you get the idea.The Apatow-idea of "mixing heart with raunch" doesn't work here, because any attempt at humanity and sentiment is disregarded so things like sex puns and lame gags can take their turn on film. The leads are the laidback Paul Schneider and G4's gorgeous Olivia Munn, who are sadly not given much to do because the screenplay is so close-minded to nonsense. The two play Tommy and Audrey, a suburban couple who, after three years of marriage, are eager to start a family. After nine months of failed attempts, the two begin to question if one of them has a problem, whether it be Tommy with his sperm count or Audrey with her ovaries. Wow, took you nine months to realize that constant sex and no baby wasn't a good sign? I'd get nervous after attempt three.They both get tested, and it is revealed that Tommy has a very low sperm count. One thing Audrey doesn't realize is that, in order to pay for an engagement ring, Tommy frequented a sperm bank twenty times for roughly eighty-five dollars in cold, hard cash each visit to pay for it. When she finds out, she's strangely disgusted and Tommy devises a plan with his pals (Kevin Heffernan and Nat Faxon) to try and stage a break in to the sperm bank warehouse to get the samples back. And she's completely cool with that. As an exercise, ask your spouse whether they'd be more aggravated at you for donating to a sperm bank or robbing one.But first, Tommy learns that one of his samples is out on the market, and it has been purchased by a local gay couple. When Tommy goes to visit them it sets up a cruel and wholly unnecessary ten minutes involving some of the most awkwardly exchanged dialog this year. It's scenes like this that simply don't belong in a comedy, but The Babymakers is chock-full of scenes like that.In order to try and pull off the heist in a coherent manner, they hire the walking stereotype, Ron-Jon (Jay Chandrasekhar, who also directs), who was rumored to be a part of the Indian mob. You can imagine how many jokes just this past sentence can set up and, let's just say, the film doesn't miss its chance to try and say all of them.The real tragedy behind this picture is that in the mix of creating juvenile setups, crass gags, and scenes that stretch far beyond their reason lengths (take for example Kevin Heffernan's character, who during the sperm bank heist spills dozens of test tubes containing semen and spends minutes slipping and sliding around on the floor), the script successfully undermines both Munn and Schneider's chance at erecting believable, substantial chemistry, as well as both their acting talents. Schneider worked in successful independent flicks, and Munn has consistently proved herself to speak to the geek culture, much like other filmmakers such as Joss Whedon and Kevin Smith. They deserve better than this trite.Jay Chandrasekhar is a reliable actor, but this is second time he has chosen to direct a film, involving the Broken Lizard team in lackluster material, with the first being The Dukes of Hazzard film adaptation. What this film needed in order to work was, one, a reality check. These events are highly implausible, yet are taken in the manner of sincerity and reality. Two, it needed a script more observant and intelligent. It could still be a raunchy comedy and fulfill this proposition, so my question is, why didn't it? And three, it needed to give both its leads some much deserved screen time instead of subjecting them to ridiculously contrived arguments about donating sperm to a sperm bank multiple times, uncomfortable discussions with the neighbors about possible donations, not to mention other sequences involving homosexual humor and a montage of blows to the scrotal region. I came to laugh, but I did far more wincing - one thing that is almost immediately fatal to comedies.Starring: Paul Schneider, Olivia Munn, Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, and Nat Faxon. Directed by: Jay Chandrasekhar.

I should have taken it as a bad omen that beer and pizza were served at the press screening of "The Babymakers." Sate the audience members with food, get them a little drunk, and they're much more likely to cave into the film's overbearing goofiness. That must have been what director/co- star Jay Chandrasekhar was thinking before and during his live introduction of the film, which essentially amounted to fifteen seconds of thanking us for being there and promising a movie we would like. Standing next to him with a can of Bud Light in his hand was his co-star Kevin Heffernan, who essentially echoed Chandrasekhar's words while adding that drinking would enliven the experience. Give him some credit – at least he had to courage to say that out loud. In the interest of full disclosure, I allowed myself one beer and two slices of pizza, one cheese and one pepperoni.For most people, myself included, a single beer isn't enough to generate even a light buzz. This suited me find, because I needed a clear head in order to process the film. I didn't mingle with the other critics/guests during the pizza party, but I did make note of the fact that no one took more than a second can, so I suspect they too wanted a lucid viewing experience. Most telling to me was the reaction during the film. Yes, there was laughter, but it was neither uproarious nor constant, and I noticed that there were several obvious verbal and physical gags that generated no laughs at all. When it was over, there was some polite applauding, but at no point did the screening room reverberate with enthusiastic cheers. So it appears that this movie isn't as good as Chandrasekhar thinks it is, and that his only course of action is offering audiences a surefire way to make it only seem funnier."The Babymakers" is another unfortunate example of a decent premise mired by poor execution. What could have been a witty, observant human comedy was instead turned into a vulgar, juvenile gag fest. It involves, as the title makes perfectly clear, a lot of crude references to genitalia, sex, masturbation, conception, and semen, the latter prominently featured in a scene where Heffernan knocks over canisters of sample-filled test tubes. The slippery contents spill all over the floor, and because he's slathered in the stuff, he finds that he can't stand up or keep his balance. A scene like this is a waste of humor. It would have been better spent on the ups and downs of trying to get pregnant, the prospect of parenthood, and dealing with the shame of malfunctioning equipment. In other words, it would have been better spent on characters and situations that were in some way grounded in reality.Taking place in Los Angeles, we meet a man named Tommy (Paul Schneider), who finally agrees with his wife, Audrey (Olivia Munn), that it's time for them to have a baby. An explicit montage shows nine months worth of unsuccessful pregnancy attempts, and when word gets out, everyone and their uncle comes to Tommy with fertility advice. Tommy doesn't believe that he's the one with the malfunctioning body; unbeknownst to Audrey, he paid for her wedding ring several years earlier with the money he earned donating to a local sperm bank. Obviously, his donations wouldn't have been accepted had he been shooting blanks. But a visit to a fertility doctor makes it clear that, since that time, his sperm count has lowered. Facing a life without a child, his only option is to return to the sperm bank and buy back his donations.But as fate would have it, all but one has been used. Complicating matters further, the one that remains in cold storage has been sold to a gay couple, who Tommy unsuccessfully tries to reason with. Desperate, he turns to his friends, Wade (Heffernan) and the perpetually wonky Zig-Zag (Nat Faxon), and they all decide that they will break into the sperm bank and steal the last of Tommy's samples. Hired to mastermind the heist is a flagrant walking stereotype named Ron Jon (Chandrasekhar), whose claims of once being affiliated with the Indian mafia are dubious at best. He initially envisions an elaborate robbery in multi-panel views a la modern-day spy thrillers, but he instantaneously revises his plan when he's reminded that he can simply pick the lock of the back door.Of course, it wouldn't be a comedy if things didn't go wrong, and boy, do things go wrong. There's a subplot involving a series of nude photos of Wade's current girlfriend (and Tommy's ex-girlfriend), and there's the prospect of Audrey somehow learning about Tommy's past affiliation with the sperm bank. We also have a few brief scenes with Audrey's arrogant ex-boyfriend, who has since gotten married, and even the topic of adoption comes up. None of this was especially offensive, but it was all rather juvenile, strained, and hopelessly predictable. The only scene of "The Babymakers" that truly was in poor taste was the final one. About that, I'll say this much: The list of things adults get away with in the name of comedy has grown too long. If Chandrasekhar wants me to laugh at one of his movies, he's going to have to try a lot harder than beer and pizza. A steak dinner would be nice. I'm partial to prime rib.-- Chris Pandolfi (www.atatheaternearyou.net)