The Slammin' Salmon is the latest effort from the Broken Lizard comedy troupe. At least, I think they put effort into it. I would hope they did, but it's hard to tell if they did or not.

Broken Lizard are the guys behind Beerfest and the cult favorite Super Troopers. Their newest flick, The Slammin' Salmon, is about Cleon Salmon's restaurant and the waiters who run it. Cleon Salmon (Michael Clarke Duncan) is a former boxing heavyweight champion and after retiring, opened up a seafood restaurant in Miami. Cleon is low on liquid assets, but finds himself 20,000 dollars in debt to a Japanease Yakuza boss. His solution? Convince his wait staff to bring 20,000 dollars worth of profit into the restaurant in one night.

The person with the highest total of sales (Tips included!) will receive 10,000 dollars cash from the Champ. The person who brings in the least, will receive a beating at the hands of Cleon. The wait staff, as you might expect from such a setup, isn't the most competent group of employees. They're all goofballs who work at The Slammin' Salmon out of necessity more than desire.

To no surprise, the 10 thousand motivates the staff to work harder than they ever have before, but it also leads to backstabbing and gags in order to climb to the top of the leader board.

The Slammin' Salmon isn't a horrendous concept. The execution is poor, however. It's a movie that could have been very clever and funny, but the writers settle for pointless vulgarities. There are some very funny movies that aren't exactly the cleanest, but my gripe with a comedy comes when they're foul just for foul's sake and no other reason. It's as if they think they're being funny just because they're saying four letter words that you won't hear on television or on the radio.

Another problem with the film is that so much of it feels borrowed from the 2005 Ryan Reynolds movie "Waiting...". Except Waiting had much better writing and direction.

None of the actors are particularly good. I'm a big fan of Cobie Smulders (From How I Met Your Mother) but even she's missing something here. I suppose the actor that did the best was Michael Clarke Duncan, but his role is pretty much an uncensored Tracy Jordan from 30 Rock. Over the top, a little on the dumb side, and screaming profanities for an hour.

I actually thought Super Troopers was funny and Beerfest had some chuckles in it. But The Slammin' Salmon too often settles for shock over substance.

The Slammin' Salmon is Rated R for pervasive language and sexual references. It's definitely a film geared towards adults, but even for adults, I think this one falls flat.

Overall, I'll give The Slammin' Salmon 1 out of 5 digested engagement rings.