Review: The Slammin' Salmon

The Slammin' Salmon is  the latest outing by comedy troupe Broken Lizard, the guys who brought us Super Troopers and Beerfest. This time around, the entire movie takes place during a single evening at the titular restaurant, with a majority of the wait-staff being played by the Lizards. The plot essentially boils down to the fact that the owner of the restaurant has laid down a challenge: the top-selling waiter of the evening will win a prize, and the waiter with the lowest total gets punched in the stomach.

The plot is (as you can probably tell) fairly simplistic, but it actually works well here. Rather than allowing themselves to get bogged down in a plot that reaches too far or becomes overcomplicated, setting the entire film in a single location allows you to spend the 90 minutes focused solely on character development. Now, this isn't character development in the traditional sense, but you do get a a sense for who all these characters are, and they establish nice little quirks or personality traits for each of the characters that helps to draw the humor out during the rest of the film.

All of the Lizards do a fine job at playing their particular roles. If you liked their style or sense of humor in their previous films, you will feel right at home in this one. They each ended up with a few scenes/lines that made me laugh, and there weren't any weak links. No one member particularly outshines all the others, but Jay Chandrasekhar is particularly hilarious as"Nuts", even if his character doesn't seem to get as much screen time as some of the other leads. Among the non-Broken Lizards stepping into lead roles is Michael Clark Duncan as the owner of the restaurant. Ducan isn't typically known as a comedic actor, though he has dipped his toe in the waters from time to time. In this film though, he steals nearly every scene he's in. He perfectly nails the character as both equal parts dim-witten and intimidating, and he has a number of fantastic one-liners that I have found myself referencing numerous times since I saw the film. The rest of the roles are filled out by a string of cameos from individuals playing patrons at the restaurant. The performances here vary, but it will keep you entertained to see what actor/actress is going to pop up next, and they run a nice mix between new talent and a number of folks you'll recognize from previous Broken Lizard movies.

The first question people will ask when they found you saw this movie will inevitably by "Was this as good as Beerfest or Super Troopers?" Unfortunately, my answer to that would be "no." That's not to say that it was a bad movie, but at this point I just don't think people will be talking about this one with the same fondness so many hold for the Lizard's previous work. That said, I certainly wasn't disappointed with the film, and yes Spud, it is definitely better than Club Dread. It provided more than enough laughs, the characters again found that perfect mix of unique and relateable, and I can easily see myself quoting lines to this movie with friends months and years down the road. This solid outing keeps me firmly entrenched in the "fan" camp for Broken Lizard, and while I wouldn't rate this as their best work, I'm certainly on board for whatever they cook up next. (PUN!)

After its shift is over, I'd take this movie out for three rounds on me. Duncan gets to pick what we drink.