The Slammin' Salmon

The filmography of The Broken Lizard comedy troupe is very much hit-or-miss. Their latest restaurant comedy The Slammin's Salmon is one of the troupe's true wins. Kevin Heffernan directs this heated contest at a high-profile Miami restaurant whose aim is to try to earn sufficient money to save the restaurant being used to pay off a gambling debt. Obviously, The Slammin' Salmon is not going to win any awards for creativity, yet the film has what it counts the most in comedies: it's very funny from start to finish. Similarly to Super Troopers and Beerfest, the humor can be described as situational and while some set-ups result in predictable outcomes, the majority of jokes is quite clever leading to even bigger laughs by the end. The characters are diverse enough to surprise us displaying near-perfect comic timing. Michael Clarke Duncan starring as an overbearing chief is a standout. His performance is so over-the-top that virtually irresistible. I wish every comedy was so immediate and apt in delivering laughs as The Slammin' Salmon. 7.5/10 (B)

I really want to like Broken Lizard's movies, Super Troopers is one of the best comedies I have ever seen, but none of their subsequent movies even comes close to matching it. In The Slammin' Salmon the waitstaff of a high end seafood restaurant compete against each other to win $10,000 for selling the most food in one night. The eccentric former heavyweight boxer turned restaurant owner (Michael Clark Duncan) is amusing throughout the movie, as are the waitstaff themselves, but only for the last 40 min or so of the film. The big problem with The Slammin' Salmon is that it takes too long to really get going. Its not until the waitstaff finally get fired up about the contest and start sabotaging each other the film becomes truly funny. It's not a bad movie, and it is pretty funny at times, but it really could have been so much better.

While people are going to INSTANTLY compare this to Super Troopers on how it doesn't reach that standard (easily the funniest and most quotable movie of their repertoire) and while it is slow in the beginning, the movie easily has you laughing with the absurdness. Each character is flushed out well enough for the movie's purposes, and each gives you the right laughs at the right moments. Quotable, outlandish, and insane. A mix of Waiting meets Glengarry Glenross meets...well...Super Troopers. However, if this STILL hasn't won you over, there is one sole reason to see this movie:

Michael F***in' Clarke Duncan.

HOLY hell did he have fun with this script. His character of the Champ has the BEST lines of the whole movie, and I almost wonder how much was scripted and how much is just him going off the chain. Best lines of the movie:

(while admiring his sister's triplets) "Look at the little babies! Hey, it's Uncle Cleon. Damn, they all look the same. What did you do, f**k a Xerox machine?"

(to Japanese translator) "How do you say 'motherf***er' in Spanish?"

and my personal favorite— "You know what ten grand feels like in your pocket? It feels like a third c*ck."

Seriously, get some beers, grab some friends, and watch this movie. It's good times.

Great movie for fans of broken lizard. They were great together as always. It is a must watch.

The latest effort by the comic troupe known as Broken Lizard, "The Slammin' Salmon" is a fitfully amusing comedy set in an upscale seafood restaurant in Miami owned and operated by a flamboyant ex-boxer known as - what else? - The Slammin' Salmon (delightfully played by Michael Clarke Duncan). To pay off a gambling debt, the boss sets up a competition among his staff of waiters and waitresses to see who can bring in the most money in a 24-hour period. Chaos and mayhem ensue.

As directed by Kevin Heffernan (who also appears, alongside his fellow Broken Lizard writers and actors, as one of the waiters), "The Slammin' Salmon" is not the most sophisticated or highbrow comedy you'll ever see, but its breezy style and high-energy performances go a long way towards making something uniquely unhinged and genuinely fun out of the material. Despite all the crazy antics, the movie never has to strain too hard to get its laughs, and even when the jokes clatter to the floor - as they are wont to do from time to time - the cast is always there to pick up the pieces and run with them.

A few well-known faces - Will Forte, Vivica A. Fox and Morgan Fairchild - also stop by to add to the laughs.