Quasi – A Misfire From Broken Lizard (Early Review)

Quasi reunites comedy group Broken Lizard on-screen once again for more hilarious hijinks and coincidentally releases exactly five years to the day after their last film together Super Troopers 2 which also fittingly came out on the infamous day known as 4/20. The film tells the story of a hapless hunchback (Steve Lemme) who yearns for love but finds himself in the middle of a murderous feud between the Pope (Paul Soter) and the king of France (Jay Chandrasekhar) when each orders the hunchback to kill the other. For those who have seen any of Broken Lizard’s previous features, they more or less have an idea of what to expect with their newest film and style of comedy. As opposed to their earlier efforts Broken Lizard, this one is quite disappointing as their latest film is quite possibly their worst collaboration to date even if it is far from terrible.

The most important job any comedy has is to make its audience laugh. If a comedy isn’t very well put together or features countless noticeable flaws but can still produce some laughter, then most audiences tend to be a little more forgiving and might judge it more favorably. Quasi unfortunately doesn’t have that going for it as most of this film is criminally unfunny outside of a handful of slight chuckles over its 99-minute runtime. Not only are most of the jokes lazy, obnoxious, and juvenile but so much of this humor is dated beyond belief. It wouldn’t be the lease bit surprising if it was revealed this script was written over a decade ago when these jokes might’ve actually been funny or at least more amusing.

The film is obviously paying homage to classic comedy troupes and is clearly inspired by Monty Python in more ways than one where among other things, sees every member of Broken Lizard in dual roles, a creative choice that doesn’t work whatsoever and feels out of place. The guys are playing the lead roles and the secondary roles they’re also playing aren’t just cameos but have actual significant screen time and sometimes interact with each other. While this choice could work if done effectively but that just wasn’t the case as it is painful to watch renowned actors portray not only one but two highly unfunny characters in the same film. Had they cast more than just themselves for the secondary roles, it might’ve been at least a bit funnier and wouldn’t look quite as cheap or lazy. This setting and time period had the potential for a lot of fun and easy laughs especially seeing this group of actors play off of each other, but the film completely wastes its setting and does absolutely nothing entertaining or clever with it.

Despite this mostly negative review, Quasi is far from a terrible film as a few key elements keep it from ever reaching that level. Though they’ve all been significantly funnier before, it is nice seeing this group interact on screen together again and it’s clear that they all had a lot of fun making this. Heffernan is once again the standout of the group and is responsible for some of the films only laughs. Palicki is also a welcome addition to this style of comedy and gives without a doubt the best performance in the film. Hopefully she does more comedy in the future because she’s got the chops and could really deliver in a better film. The narrator of the film is also a fun little surprise that many fans of the group will enjoy.

While there isn’t anything irredeemable or offensive about Quasi, it is yet another disappointing and mostly unfunny comedy that is understandably only releasing on streaming on either Hulu in the United States or Disney+ internationally. Diehard fans of Broken Lizard or similar comedy might find some amusement here but this film, for the most part, is a dull and completely forgettable watch that is sure to disappear from the minds of audiences as soon as the credits roll.

still courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/