Super Troopers 2: Movie Review
It’s been 17 years since Broken Lizard’s “Super Troopers” was released in theaters. Although it was not a box office hit, the film developed a massive following over the years. Even with its’ cult status, the studio would not finance a sequel, so Broken Lizard started an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign where they raised more than 4 million dollars from fans to help finance the film. So, now we have “Super Troopers 2”, which was partially paid for by the people who loved watching “Super Troopers”. I love the fact that we live in a time where fans can help make a project like this happen, even if the-end-result isn’t all that good.
That brings us to “Super Troopers 2”, a long-awaited sequel that is not a disaster like “Bad Santa 2”, “Dumb & Dumber To”, or “Zoolander 2”, but fails to be as funny or as clever as the original. Let’s be fair, how many comedy sequels are there that are truly funny? Most of them are retreads of the first film, like “The Hangover” movies. There is little-to-no originality in any of them, so I think it is kind-of-a-miracle that “Super Troopers 2” is-able-to land a few decent laughs.
Set years after the events of the first film (obviously), The former troopers are now working in construction due-to-the-fact that they all lost their jobs in law enforcement. To make matters worse, their foreman is Rod Farva (Kevin Heffernan), the guy they love to hate. When a border dispute arises between the U.S. and Canada, Thorny (Jay Chandrasekhar), Mac (Steve Lemme), Rabbit (Erik Stolhanske), and Rod are tasked with establishing a Highway Patrol station in the disputed area. Captain O’Hagan (Brian Cox) has also come out of retirement to look after his troopers.
The local Canadians are too thrilled about their home potentially becoming part of the U.S. This includes town mayor Guy Le Franc (Rob Lowe), who is also the owner of the local brothel. The Canadian Mounties (played by Tyler Labine, Will Sasso, and Hayes MacArthur) are also not happy with the presence of the Highway Troopers. Not only are the Troopers and Mounties at war, but it turns out someone in the town is smuggling illegal pharmaceuticals.
For the most part, “Super Troopers” feels lazy and rushed, which shouldn’t have been the case for a film that took so long to get made. Admittedly, there were a handful of times I did laugh. One of my favorite gags involves the Canadian Mounties talking about Danny DeVito. Farva can be an annoying character, but when you have him playing off the rest of this cast, he can be quite funny. One of my favorite scenes is when the troopers each decide to test the various drugs they seized in-order-to figure out what they are.
If you are a fan of “Super Troopers”, you will most likely want to check out the sequel for yourself. If you are expecting the comedy gold of the original, you will be very disappointed, but if you lower your expectations, you might have a few laughs and then forget all about it.
By: Marc Ferman
