Slammin' Salmon, The (Blu-ray) (2009)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-x2 Featurette-Making Of Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2009
Running Time	98:25
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Kevin Heffernan
Studio Distributor	Anchor Bay Entertainment	Starring	Jeff Chase Carla Gallo Paul Soter Michael Yurchak Nat Faxon Jolie Martin Erik Stolhanske Jay Chandrasekhar
Case	Amaray Variant
RPI	?	Music	Nathan Barr Joel J. Richard

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) English Linear PCM 48/16 5.1 English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 5.1 English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired Spanish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Broken Lizard are a comedy troupe comprising Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske. After initially breaking through with the hilarious Super Troopers (their second film) the gang have stuttered with their following efforts, almost adhering to the Star Trek odd-even rules. Their immediate follow-up Club Dread was dreadful (as bad as that pun, in fact). They followed that with the under-rated Beerfest. Now comes their fifth and worst film yet, The Slammin' Salmon.

     The film is a run-of-the-mill sitcom about a group of waiters embroiled in a one-night-only sales contest; unbeknownst to them the real purpose of the contest is to grab enough cash to pay off the restaurant owners' gambling debts to the Yakuza. The prize for the night is a holiday and an impractically large cash sum. (Arguably) hilarious hi-jinks ensue.

     The restaurant is owned by flamboyant ex-boxer Cleon Salmon (Ving Rhames, in the only really commendable performance of the lot), who has taken one two many blows to the head to be able to follow any kind of conventional logic. His staff include a pretty ballet student (April Bowlby), whose prettiness diminishes painfully as the night wears on, an all-too-sensible medical student (Cobie Smulders), a failed actor (Steve Lemme), a strange Indian fellow whose multiple personalities are only kept in check by the pills he's forgotten to take (Jay Chandrasekhar), a sleazy playboy (Erik Stolhanske), the new guy (Paul Soter), his identical twin brother the grumpy chef (Paul Soter) and an inept overweight manager (Kevin Heffernan).

     In its defence, The Slammin' Salmon was by all accounts (well, going from the banter on-disc) a hastily assembled project to fill in the 2008 writer's strike and it does have some funny moments. Unfortunately there are nowhere near enough funny moments to sustain the film. In fact there is pretty much not a laugh to be had for the first half of the film. The second half, on the other hand, is at least consistently amusing, albeit very silly. This one is a rental at best.

Video

     The video is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, just shy of its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio.

     The video looks reasonable and that's about it. The image is clean, clear and reasonably sharp. Mild edge enhancement is noticeable throughout. The colours are garishly bright, but consistent throughout. There is a reasonable level of shadow detail in the image.

     There is no sign of compression artefacts or film artefacts in the video.

     English subtitles for the hearing impaired are available. Based on the portion sampled they seem accurate and well timed.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The film features English Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kbps) and Linear PCM 5.1 audio tracks. Both tracks are functional and nothing more. The dialogue is at a good level in the mix and easy to understand. Aside from some obvious ADR the audio/video sync is good.

     The film features a fairly forgettable modern score, which sits well in the mix.

     The surrounds are used for music and general crowd noise and that's about it. The subwoofer barely gets a peep. No frills here, though they are hardly required for this sort of low budget comedy fare.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Audio Commentary with Kevin Heffernan and Steve Lemme

     A reasonably amusing commentary, that discusses the writing/directing side of things and well as the usual funny on-set anecdotes.

Audio Commentary with Paul Soter, Jay Chandrasekhar and Erik Stolhanske

     The funnier of the two commentaries. This one is a little less serious than the first and pretty much features the guys ripping on their own movie along with the odd anecdote. This commentary is more consistently amusing than the film itself!

Making Of (6:51)

     A mildly interesting and casually amusing "making of", which primarily comprises an interview with the Broken Lizard gang whilst they are in the car on the way to the set. Well worth a look for fans, but there isn't much to it.

Trailer (2:34)

     The theatrical trailer for the film's US release. It didn't get one in Australia (a statement that counts for both a release and a trailer).

    The US Region A Blu-ray is identical to the Australian Region B disc.

    A bland restaurant comedy. Most viewers will find more laughs in an episode of Masterchef than the first half of this mess, although it improves substantially in the latter half of the film.

    Video and audio quality are so-so. The extras are modest in number and reasonable in quality.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall