Review: Super Troopers 2

Score: C

Director: Jay Chandrasekhar

Cast: Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Erik Stolhanske, Paul Soter

Running Time: 100 Minutes

Rated: R

Comedy sequels have a pretty terrible track record, especially the longer it's been since the original. Titles like Anchorman 2 and Dumb and Dumber To failed to re-capture the magic of the originals, and misfires like American Reunion inspire outright derision. So my expectations were basement-level for Super Troopers 2. While I discovered the original in college and enjoyed it, I was never the biggest fan of Broken Lizard's combo of dad jokes and dick jokes.

So color me surprised that this partially crowd-funded sequel isn't a complete and utter embarrassment.

It takes less than 15 minutes for the disgraced quintet of state troopers to get back in the saddle, patrolling a disputed patch of land between Vermont and Canada. The surprisingly hard-partying locals don't care too much for the newcomers, and an intense rivalry begins between the guys and the trio of Mounties (Will Sasso, Tyler Labine and Hayes MacArthur) they're replacing.

A lot of the jokes are low-hanging fruit about how Canadians use the metric system, love pancakes and hockey, and say "Eh." Anything that required more thought than this got a decent chuckle out of me. But most of the jabs rarely rise to that level.

There's also a drug-smuggling operation the guys run afoul of, as well as a tepid romance, but honestly that's too much plot for a movie that's at its best when the guys are just pulling pranks. A montage where they hassle drivers dressed as Mounties brings the most consistent laughs, so trying to keep this thing on the rails for 100 minutes seems unnecessary.

As with all comedies, your mileage will vary. And while I didn't find it consistently funny, particularly because Farva (Kevin Heffernan) is one of the most annoying characters to ever grace a movie screen, I find myself liking it the more I think about it. That's mostly due to little moments, like Rob Lowe as the hockey-goon-turned-mayor of a small town and Paul Walter Hauser (I, Tonya) as Farva's Canadian doppelganger. Those bits are well-deployed and aren't overused. Had Super Troopers 2 been more consistent, it could have risen to the level of dumb-cop classics like the Naked Gun series or Reno 911. But for now, it's destined to be another at-home hit for those already in its cult.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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