Border patrol
Broken Lizard’s largely fun ‘Super Troopers 2’ reunites the gang to face off with Canada
Listen up, right here, right meow.
“Super Troopers 2” — the Broken Lizard comedy troupe’s sequel to its cult-favorite 2002 effort about a bunch of immature cops — is surprisingly enjoyable.
While the first “Super Troopers” is hysterical at first, it rather quickly wears out its welcome. But in the years since, with Broken Lizard making more films, including “Club Dread” (2004), “Beerfest” (2006) and “The Slammin’ Salmon” (2009), it would appear they have improved, at least slightly, on their movie-making craft.
Oh, “Super Troopers 2” — crowdfunded, thanks to the group’s passionate fanbase — isn’t pure comedy gold. Yet, armed with a bunch of jokes about Canada and Canadians — the action takes place just across the Vermont-Canada border — the guys deliver a pretty steady stream of chuckles, many of them quite crass and admittedly of the guiltypleasure variety, over the course of the decidedly R-rated affair.
After a mostly fun beginning sequence we won’t spoil, “Super Troopers 2” begins in earnest with Arcot “Thorny” Ramathorn (Jay Chandrasekhar), MacIntyre “Mac” Womack (Steve Lemme), Jeff Foster (Paul Soter), Robert “Rabbit” Roto (Erik Stolhanske) and Rodney “Rod” Farva — a big fat jerk amid a group of lesser, skinnier jerks — seemingly years removed from their days as Vermont Highway Patrol officers. (We will come to learn an incident involving actor Fred Savage spelled the end of their careers.)
However, when a chunk of Canadian land is set to become part of the United States, the gents are given the chance to be cops again. Their job is police this area, which is now caught between two countries and their respective cultures.
That puts them at odds with three Canadian Mounties (Tyler Labine, Hayes MacArthur and Will Sasso). The rivalry between the two law-enforcement groups fuels much of the film’s hijinks, including a scene with a real bear.
More receptive to our heroes are the mayor of the Canadian town, an ex-hockey player and current brothel owner played by Rob Lowe (“Parks and Recreation,” “The West Wing”), and a French-Canadian cultural attache portrayed by Emmanuelle Chriqui (“Entourage,” “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan”), who becomes a potential love interest of Rabbit. (Farva also thinks he has a chance with the beautiful woman, for some reason.)
Also, film veteran Brian Cox (“The Bourne Identity,” “Churchill”) returns, as the troopers’ leader, Captain O’Hagan, as does former “Wonder Woman” TV star Linda Carter, as Vermont Governor Jessman.
Mostly, “Super Troopers” is about the American cops screwing with their counterparts, as well as with each other. The stuff the guys do to Rod — a man who swallows M&Ms whole and orders 10 big colas at one sitting at a restaurant to get a free dessert a normal person would earn over 10 visits — is pretty funny.
And, of course, the troopers screw with drivers. As fans might have guessed by the beginning of this review, there is a reprise of the first movie’s memorable “meow” gag, complete with comedian Jim Gaffigan.
What plot there is involves the gang discovering stockpiles of drugs and more contraband that would appear to be part of a smuggling operation. Mostly, though, this is an excuse for the five cops to try the various drugs, which leads to decent running gag involving Thorny getting hooked on sexual-enhancement pills — designed for women.
Nobody’s acting in a movie such as “Super Troopers 2” really deserves to be singled out, but the Broken Lizard guys — especially Chandrasekhar and Lemme — bring something mildly appealing, if really sloppy, to the screen.
Chandrasekhar, who’s directing credits away from Broken Lizard include 2005’s “The Dukes of Hazzard,” is behind the camera here, as he was for the first film.
He keeps things from becoming bogged-down, at least for the most part, even if there’s certainly a little fat to the Broken Lizard script. However, according to the movie’s press notes, there were 37 drafts of it, which helps to explain “Super Troopers 2” feeling relatively packed with at least solid gags.
“Super Troopers 2” should delight Broken Lizard fans, especially those who contributed part of the $4.6 million collected via crowdfunding site Indiegogo to finance the movie. According to the notes, it was the second-mostsuccessful such effort, so there certainly are some devotees out there.
And without getting too much into the way some no doubt will choose to enjoy the romp, it’s probably no accident its being released on April 20, aka 4-20.
For the rest of us, it’s a pleasant-enough distraction, one probably made better if seen with an enthusiastic crowd.
If nothing else, there’s the America-versus-Canada humor to entertain. But, hey, if you wouldn’t enjoy a scene in which a bunch of Canadians making fun of Americans for the way we say “sorry” — “saaaarry” — this one’s probably not for you.
Meow.