THE SLAMMIN' SALMON (2009)

Another excellent comedy by the five-man comedy group Broken Lizard.  This time around the entire movie takes place inside a restaurant called The Slammin' Salmon, named after the owner: retired heavyweight boxer "Slammin" Cleon Salmon. Anyway, Mr. Salmon has lost a bet with the Japanese yukaza and he has to come up with $20,000 cash by tomorrow. So he offers his wait staff a reward of $10,000 to the person who can sell the most that night.  The loser gets a beating. When the wait staff hears this they go nuts and will do anything to win...or, at least, not lose.

This is a great idea for a movie and minus all the crude humor it actually reminds me a lot of the old screwball comedies of the 1930's.  Super-fast pace, mile a minute dialogue, multiple things going on at one time, hilarious one-liners non-stop, great physical humor and a fantastic supporting cast.  The most pleasant surprise though was just how funny Michael Clarke Duncan was.  He was hilarious!  I think every time he was on screen I was cracking up.  His lines were funny, but his delivery was absolutely perfect.

I really like this movie a lot and have enjoyed it many times over the years.  Highly recommended.

CLUB DREAD (2004)

[This review is for the original 104-minute version.  The unedited 119-minute version has a slower pace and is nowhere near as entertaining.]

Comedy slasher film CLUB DREAD is a better slasher movie than 40% of legitimate Slasher movies (I'm looking at you Jason Goes To Hell, you pigfucking piece of shit.). The story is about a Slasher movie-style murderer killing the dick out of everybody on a private resort island ran by a 3rd-rate Jimmy Buffett burnout named Coconut Pete, brilliantly played by Bill Paxton. The Broken Lizard guys are all employees on the island.

After the standard Slasher movie opening kill scene, we're introduced to Lars (who is a new employee) arriving with a new boatload of vacationers. The boat leaves and now they're all alone on the island with no way off. Partying ensues. Before too long the killings are discovered by the employees, but, with their only radio destroyed, the staff are forced to keep the murders secret (or risk starting a mass panic) and catch the killer themselves.

That might sound serious, but it's not. The entire movie is the Broken Lizard guys up to non-stop crazy (and hilarious) shit.  Fast pace, solid direction, entertaining story, mild tit action, tons of quotable lines. I've seen CLUB DREAD probably 25 times over the years and it's still a fun watch.  Recommended for sure.

It'd make a great double-feature with THE SLAMMIN' SALMON.

Not part of the review: It'd be funny if the Broken Lizard team made a CLUB DREAD 2, but made it 100% absolutely serious as shit.  I'm talking INSIDE-level viewer trauma. Keep the same silly title font, lighthearted poster artwork and upbeat opening credits, then just brutally eyeball fuck the audience to death. Give 'em a really extraordinary case of the wonky britches.