Super Troopers

A bunch of bored, goofy highway patrolmen waste their days playing pranks on one another and fucking around with the heads of the drivers who they stop. But what’s this? Their jobs may be in jeopardy and the local police don’t like their attitudes? Comedy troupe funnies ensue…

Certainly not as flat-out funny as I had anticipated, this film does deliver enough laughs, enough nostalgia, goofy pranks, drinking and smoking of the doobs, to entertain anyone with a college frat boy attitude (guilty!). The film stars and was written by a comedy troupe that goes by the name of Broken Lizard. I don’t much care for “comedy troupes” myself but I gotta admit, these guys put together some good times. Not only that, but it really looks as though they had a blast making the movie as well (stay tuned for the film’s end credits for more on that). But with the massive praise that it achieved at the Sundance Film Festival, the “hilarious” word on the street and some pretty funny scenes in the trailer (“We’re already pulled over…we can’t pull over any further!”), I guess my expectations might’ve been a little too high on the laugh-o-meter, hence the overall disappointment. My guess is that if you go in with a reserved attitude, you might just enjoy it more than I did. I did really love the film’s opening sequence though, easily the funniest gag in the entire movie, but the jokes only hit and miss after that. The characters were also successfully crafted, with all of the different personality types working well off one another, and thankfully for us, not one being particularly over-the-top annoying. This is always a good thing to avoid in stupid comedies.

I especially enjoyed the Indian highway patrolman (or is he Mexican?), who as it turns out, is also the director of the movie. The soundtrack was also kickass, and the style, decent, but in the end, you are either gonna think the jokes are funny…or not. I saw a handful of folks walking out of our screening, so I assume that the film isn’t for all tastes. I too didn’t much care for some of the gags (the whole doggy-styling of the bear was just plain dumb), but on the whole, the characters, their rapport, the drugged-up teens and the cute romance between the girl who loved giving blowjobs in FREDDY GOT FINGERED, Marisa Coughlan (a real cutey, btw) and a highway patrolman, made for an okay time at the movies. The film also feels free of the typical Hollywood idiocies, although it did run a little longer than it should have near the end (you didn’t really need to develop a serious plotline, guys…it’s a goofy comedy after all), and props also go out to both Brian Cox and Daniel Von Bargen for bringing some “class” to the film? Anyway, see it if you’re drunk, see it if you know the difference between your various types of marijuana, see it if you’re sitting in a college flat right now, smoking a bowl and see it if you are looking for a number of funny and unfunny skits about Vermont cops with moustaches. Definitely not the knee-slapper that I was told it would be, but enough hahas for me to grade as “passable”.

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian