The Slammin' Salmon

In order to pay off urgent gambling debts, a retired boxer (Michael Clarke Duncan) presses the wait staff of his Miami restaurant to break their single-night sales record. His subsequent offer to pony up ten grand for the most profitable server (and dish out a beating to the loser) quickly turns the evening into a cutthroat competition; no blow too low when a couple months' salary is on the line. But, while moral integrity is in short supply, brainpower is even more limited and the contestants sabotage themselves more often than they hinder each other. Even by Broken Lizard standards, this is some lowest-common-denominator material. Script-writing has never been the troupe's strong suit, but _The Slammin' Salmon_ reaches a new low in that respect, then pairs it with a bottomless trough of dumb, obvious punchlines and weak, forced slapstick bits. The characters each fit the same mold as shallow, self-centered savages, no warmth or appeal, even when they’re trying to push a weird moment of sentiment into the closing act. It just doesn't work, not even a little bit, and I was really rooting for it to work. Was _Super Troopers_ just a happy accident?