Summary
One of the most unfunny movies in quite some time; I would be shocked if I saw anything worse in 2023.
We review the 2023 Hulu film Quasi, which does not contain spoilers.
The Broken Lizard gang burst onto the scene in the early 2000s with Super Troopers, a movie that perfectly encapsulates how comedy was at the time.
It was dumb, but it worked, and it sparked something in this group that people would gravitate to. Now, over 20 years later, Broken Lizard is still relevant today, and are still making movies with the same dumb humor.
Quasi (2023) Review and Plot Summary
Quasi retells the famed story about Quasimodo, a.k.a The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In this version, Quasi (Steve Lemme) has already passed his time living in a Bell Tower and now resides with his best friend Duchamp (Kevin Heffernan) and works alongside him in a torture chamber.
The Pope (Paul Soter) is traveling to town, and anytime he comes to the village there is a lottery to see who gets one confession.
Quasi believes there is no chance to win the lottery, so he refuses to play. However, when Duchamp gifts him a ticket, it happens to be the winning one. After winning the lottery ticket, Quasi is requested by the King (Jay Chandrasekhar).
Upon meeting the King, he gives Quasi the task of killing the Pope. However, when Quasi arrives at his confession, the Pope gives him the same task, to kill the King.
Clearly, this is a vastly different take on the story that everyone knows; instead of feeling like a different adaptation of the story, it felt like a truly awful Larp event with this story as the backdrop.
Whether it be Steve Lemme’s poor attempt at distorting his face or Jay Chandrasekhar delivering a truly awful accent — I understand the accent was meant to be bad, but it was still even worse — this film has no redeeming qualities.
In the earlier days of Broken Lizard, there was a charm about a group of friends who wanted to make movies and watch people laugh, but for the sake of Quasi, I never felt the charm that they were having fun with what they were doing.
Is the 2023 movie Quasi good or bad?
Broken Lizard, the comedy/filmmaking group behind Quasi, has made a career out of making very specific comedy. For their earlier films, such as Super Troopers, this style of slapstick stupid comedy worked and worked well.
However, over the years, and especially with Quasi, there is a clear sense that this comedic style has run its course. There is still a humor element that the Broken Lizard gang possesses, but it never shows up in this film, and whether it be the awful attempt at fake accents, painfully unfunny jokes, or the Renaissance spoof of a set, it never once works.
Is the 2023 movie Quasi worth watching?
Quasi has quickly entered a territory of movies that could wind up as my least favorite of the year. Nothing about this movie works. The jokes are stale, with some attempts at poking fun at PC (political correctness) culture like, “You can’t call them Hunchback you have to say orthopedically challenged,” and other ventures into making these characters seem modern such as a dreary joke about selfies.
If the Broken Lizard comedy is the kind of stuff you like to see from a comedic film, then by all means, watch it. However, for the rest of the people who are contemplating seeing this film, it’s an easy skip.
What did you think of the 2023 Hulu film Quasi? Comment below.
