In 2001 Super Troopers introduced us to the Broken Lizard Comedy Troupe. This movie about a rag tag group of state troopers showed us a new style of comedy with humor that was sophomoric but not too high brow. The following movies they released always stayed ahead of the trends and made you laugh out loud. The group of Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske created a perfect recipe and always used that in their movies.
Quasi, was a movie that was 25 years in the making. Yes, you read that right. They were working on this movie before they even filmed Super Troopers. Quasi was based on a character Steve Lemme used to do and throughout the years they would go back to it and tweak it a little in hopes that it would one day be filmed. After the success of Super Troopers 2, Searchlight Pictures wanted to keep working with the troupe and they gave them the script for Quasi and it was greenlight to be their next project.
Quasi is the group’s take on the story of Quasimoto but with a more hilarious twist. Quasi, played by Steve Lemme, and his “hut mate” Duchamp, played by Kevin Heffernan, work at the King’s torture room. They spend their day torturing people and Quasi is the inventor of “The Rack” the lastest torture device that everyone is talking about. On this day their boss Lucien, played by Paul Soter, give them a new torture tester named Michel, played hilariously by Erik Stolhankse, to test out the rack. There is an ongoing joke with Michel and the rack that needs to be seen and I don’t want to spoil it for you. Although people like Quasi’s latest invention the people of the village give him no respect which is prevalent as he walks to work everyday.
There is a big event coming up in the kingdomand that is Pope Week. The Pope is coming to the kingdom and there is a lottery going on where the Pope will grant a villager a confession. Duchamp, buys a lot of tickets hoping he would win while Quasi tells him he wasted his money on those tickets. When watching the King’s man, Henri-Francoise, also played by Hefernan, getting ready to choose the winner, Duchamp gives one of his tickets to Quasi because he feels sorry for him. The humor in this scene is shown in the way Henri makes fun of the first person chosen as the winner. He plays to the stigma of those times and dismisses the first winner because they are a woman. Since she was disqualified a new number is picked and the winner is…you guessed it, Quasi.
Being the winner Quasi is invited to dinner with the King and Queen and here is where the plot thickens. The King wants Quasi to kill the Pope. The thought here is that during his confession they will be alone and that would be the perfect time to strike. Threatened with death if he does not go through with it Quasi does not know what to do. To top off this conundrum, when he goes to the confession the Pope asks him to kill the King. Yep Quasi has a lot to carry on his malformed back. We haven’t even talked about the sexual tension between him and the new Queen played by the amazing, Adrianne Palicki.
Broken Lizard does a great job of blending medieval and current day humor in Quasi. Even though they have been working on this movie for over 20 years they have been updating the jokes and removing the dated ones. Being that this is set in medieval times, some of the jokes have to do with incestual relationships between cousins, the King torturing those around him out of mere boredom and their love for oysters. Oysters play a big role in this movie.
Broken Lizard has another cult hit on their hands with Quasi. This movie will have you laughing and rewinding some scenes to catch the jokes you might have missed the first time. Little jokes like their reaction to fondue might be silly but had me laughing as the gag kept going. Gather your wenches and squires and get ready to laugh your hump off with Quasi. Also make sure you watch the after credit scene.
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Final Thoughts: Quasi is another fun comedy from the Broken Lizard crew. Their take on The Hunchback of Notre Dame is pretty funny from the moment we hear Brian Cox as the Narrator. The story centers around friendship, backstabbing, and love. There is a lot of medieval humor, and fans of the comedy troupe will get a kick out of this one.
Kid-Friendly: This is a Broken Lizard movie so the humor here is pretty raunchy and so is the language. There is no nudity but there are a lot of sexual innuendos throughout the movie.
Violence: There is some violence in the torture room. There is a stabbing and torture scene during the final act that involves male genitals.
A hapless hunchback yearns for love, but finds himself in the middle of a murderous feud between the Pope and the king of France when each orders the hunchback to kill the other.
Searchlight Pictures presents, QUASI, a Broken Lizard Industries and Cataland Films Production. Directed by Kevin Heffernan and Written by Broken Lizard, the film is produced by Richard Perello and stars Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, and Adrianne Palicki. The director of photography is Joe Collins, production design is by Bianca Ferro, the film is edited by Frank McGrath with music by Jason Akana, costume design by Kelly Kwon, and casting by Wendy O’Brien.