Released in Theaters: 12/11/09 (Limited)
The Slammin’ Salmon, the latest film by The Broken Lizard (Super Troopers, Beerfest) directed by first time helmer Kevin Heffernan (Farva/Landfill) is an outrageous slapstick comedy. It doesn’t quite compare to their earlier work, it’s more on the level of Club Dread and having a new director definitely shows, but these guys know how to make some good comedy. Their writing style is different but it works for me, and their ability to create some hilarious characters is what makes The Broken Lizard movies enjoyable. Most might see this as a silly slapstick comedy, but much like their movie Club Dread with multiple viewings this could be a great guilty pleasure that equals solid laughs when it comes on HBO.
Cleon Salmon (Michael Clarke Duncan) is a former Heavyweight Champion of the World turned celebrity owner of a high end Miami seafood restaurant, The Slammin‘ Salmon. A terrifying man, Salmon uses fear to rule over his misfit wait staff (Broken Lizard‘s Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, as well as Cobie Smulders and April Bowlby) and on this particular night, he takes his bullying skills to a whole new level. In an effort to pay off a gambling debt to the Japanese Yakuza, Salmon sets up a contest to inspire his wait staff to sell more food than they ever have before: the top selling server wins $10,000 while the waiter in last place gets served with a broken rib sandwich, courtesy of the Champ himself. As the hours pass, the dining room action becomes more frenzied as the contest escalates into a brawl for first place in order to win the money.
Jay Chandrasekhar plays Nuts or when he forgets take his medicine Kongo. He really is one of the funnier characters in the movie and always plays one of my favorite characters in Broken Lizard’s other films, especially Barry Badrinath (my fantasy film team name) from Beerfest. I was a little disappointed with Kevin Heffernan’s character he plays the restaurant manager who is pretty much everyone’s bitch. Heffernan has played some of the greatest Broken Lizard characters in the past and this one reminds me of his Club Dread character, which I wasn’t a fan of. Paul Soter’s characters Dave and Donnie are kind of annoying, both of them, he plays twins. Steve Lemme is the failed actor with a nose job and is pretty funny, and Erik Stolhanske plays the douche bag waiter with a fake tan and he produced some of the best lines such as
“I left with a hooker from Bangladesh…and I banged her ladesh all night”
The real show stealer of this movie though is Michael Clark Duncan. He’s pretty damn funny in all of his scenes, and it was different to see him act all silly like this since he’s usually a pretty serious actor in his films. His character Cleon Salmon is a very funny part of the movie and can be compared to Bill Paxton as Coconut Pete from Club Dread, but not as great. There we some usual Broken Lizard cameos such as Will Forte and Michael Weaver.
So if you are going in thinking this is going to be the next Broken Lizard classic then you will surely be disappointed but if you are a fan of their comedy then this will hold you over until they make their next great movie.
IMDB: 8.0/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 33%
Moviewiseguys: 6.5/10