The Babymakers   Starring: Olivia Munn, Paul Schneider, Aisha Taylor and Nat Faxon Momentum Pictures RRP: £12.99 MP1178D Certificate: 15 Available 01 October 2012

Tommy and Audrey have the fairy-tale marriage and on their third anniversary they decide to start a family. The only problem with this is that, after nine months of trying, a trip to a doctor confirms that Tommy has lazy sperm. Tommy initially rejects this diagnosis as he had previously donated sperm twenty times to afford Audrey’s engagement ring. When he finally comes around to the truth he tries to recover his sperm from the bank, only to discover that his last sample has already been sold. With the bank unwilling to give it back Tommy’s only option is to do a sperm bank job...

The Babymakers (2012 - 1 hr, 31 min, 37 sec) is a screwball comedy, directed by Jay Chandrasekhar, from a Peter Gaulke and Gerry Swallow script. The film stars Paul Schneider, Olivia Munn and Kevin Heffernan

I have real problems with these sort of comedy films, mostly because the majority of them are just not funny, a lot of them rely less on an intelligent and witty script and instead go straight to the lowest common denominator of toilet humour. Now, there is nothing wrong with this, but even a film full of nob gags has to be able to have itself on a sturdy framework of good writing. The Babymakers fails to do this.

At best the film is amusing. With its absurd premise there was a lot of potential to explore male neurosis regarding their identity, or go the other way and create a smutty, debauched, absurd delight. The Babymakers does neither of these things, it does pepper the script with the ‘F’ word and everyone says ‘sperm’ about every five minutes. Maybe the word alone is hilarious in the States.

The film has two central problems. The first is that the set piece of the movie, the robbery, which should have formed the main part of the film, is over fairly quickly, leading to disappointment and the character of Tommy spends a lot of the film not being a terribly sympathetic person. It is difficult to either sympathise or identify with him. Paul Schneider (Tommy) and Olivia Munn (Audrey) do what they can, the chemistry between the two main characters work well, but the film's underlying problems lies with the script.

The DVD has only a couple of extras, a Featurette (4 min, 50 sec) which is little more than an extended advert for the film and the Theatrical Trailer (2 min, 49 sec).

5

Charles Packer