Quasi
Broken Lizard's "Quasi" is better than quasi-funny.
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I’ve been a backer of the comedy troupe Broken Lizard consisting of Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske for a hot minute now. A buddy and I got high as a coupla kites back in February 2002 and saw “Super Troopers” theatrically opening weekend before the rest of y’all caught up with it on home video and cable. A cult comedy classic was born. We incessantly quoted the flick. We showed it to all of our friends. They incessantly quoted the flick. They showed it to all of their friends.
“Super Troopers” remains Broken Lizard’s gold standard, but I’ve enjoyed all of their movies to varying degrees with the exception of their rather drab debut “Puddle Cruiser.” I was excited to see their most recent effort “Quasi” (now streaming on Hulu) despite the fact that the trailer was wack. Happily, despite a weak opening, the picture is markedly better than the preview.
In Broken Lizard’s vulgar spin on Victor Hugo’s “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” Lemme stars as our titular character. He works in a torture chamber belonging to King Guy (Chandrsekhar) alongside his “hutmate” Duchamp (Heffernan). It’s here that they report to Lucien (Soter) and test Quasi’s torture device (the rack) on burgeoning chef Michel (Stolhanske), who’s paid for his pain and hungry to attend culinary school.
In what would seem to be strokes of good luck Quasi gains the attention of King Guy’s most recent wife Queen Catherine (Adrianne Palicki), wins confessional from Pope Cornelius (Soter, looking distractingly like Matthew McConaughey circa “The Wolf of Wall of Wall Street”) and is invited to dine with King Guy. Turns out Quasi’s not so lucky – Cornelius wants Quasi to assassinate Guy and Guy wants Quasi to assassinate Cornelius. Under threats of death and/or hell, Quasi’s damned if he do and damned if he don’t. He’ll team with Catherine and Duchamp to save all their skins.
Chandrasekhar has directed every Broken Lizard flick save for “The Slammin’ Salmon” and now “Quasi” – both of which were helmed by Heffernan. The movie gets off to a rather slow and unfunny start (despite inspired narration from “Super Troopers” vet Brian Cox, who the Broken Lizard boys lovingly call, “Coxy”). Once it finds its rhythm it’s funny and does all the things Broken Lizard do well. It’s smart-dumb. It’s violent. There’s a ton of word play and jokes involving mispronounced words. There’s a litany of callbacks and callbacks to callbacks. Each member plays two characters … sometimes within the confines of the same scene.
Though it’s not their best work, this is the closest Broken Lizard has ever gotten to emulating Monty Python. It’ll make 12-year-olds and 12-year-olds at heart laugh. It’s better than quasi-funny.