MOVIE: SUPER TROOPERS 2

Shane | 18 April 2018 | Reply

MOVIE: SUPER TROOPERS 2
Written by Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Hefferman, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stohlhanske
Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar
Starring Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Hefferman, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stohlhanske, Brian Cox
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
6 ½ /10

Super Troopers became a smash cult stoner/slacker hit way back in 2001, and finally the Broken Lizard comedy team have pooled their resources to make a sequel. Crowd funding the enterprise they more than doubled their two million dollar budget, eventually financing the movie to the tune of 4.4 million bucks – testament to the warm place that the original had in many hearts.

Almost all of the old faces are back for another round here, as well as many of the same jokes. The original’s biggest comedic strength was in this group of lazy, piss-taking highway patrolmen playing games with motorists they stopped on the highway, and Super Troopers 2 doesn’t really get cooking until they do the same, more than halfway into the film.

The premise of ST2 is that they were fired from the local cop jobs they scored at the end of the first film, as a result of a ride-along with actor Fred Savage going mysteriously wrong (watch through the credits for more on this). Now working in construction, the rag-tag team are tapped to temporarily police a small portion of Canada which is being subsumed by US state Vermont.

Local resentment, Mountie rivalry and infighting with the obnoxious Farva conspire to ignite the team’s disregard for authority and before you know it (though not early enough in the movie to save it) they’re up to their old tricks again – and again there is a drug smuggling racket to expose (though why American movies think lazy jokes about random hard drug use is hilarious is anyone’s guess).

Rob Lowe’s cameo – complete with ridiculous Quebecois accent – along with appearances by Lynda Carter and Emmanuelle Chriqui are similarly not enough to elevate ST2 and it’s so-clever-it’s-too-dumb plot to the heights of the original – though it definitely has its moments.

Fans of the original have grown up in the sixteen years since the first film, and perhaps their main characters should have a little as well. They’ll get a few kicks out of this instalment, but Broken Lizard are going to need a few better jokes if they want to go for round three, eh.