Super Troopers 2

Watch Movies TV -***DISCLAIMER*** The following review is entirely my opinion. If you comment (which I encourage you to do) be respectful. If you don't agree with my opinion (or other commenters), that's fine. To each their own. These reviews are not meant to be statements of facts or endorsements, I am just sharing my opinions and my perspective when watching the film and is not meant to reflect how these films should be viewed. Finally, the reviews are given on a scale of 0-5. 0, of course, being unwatchable. 1, being terrible. 2, being not great. 3, being okay. 4, being great and 5, being epic! And if you enjoy these reviews feel free to share them and follow the blog or follow me on Twitter (@RevRonster) for links to my reviews and the occasional live-Tweet session of the movie I'm watching! Sometimes the wait just isn't worth it, like right meow.

Super Troopers 2 – 2 out of 5

When I was in college, I saw a trailer for a little comedy called Super Troopers.  It wasn’t marketed heavily and the trailers had me thinking this would either be a really bad independent comedy or one of those sleeper hits that are way funnier than a trailer could ever sell it.  Well, I was able to catch a sneak preview for it and found the film incredibly hysterical and it would go on to be a film that I still quote to this day.  While a part of me always wanted a sequel, I was okay with the reality that there might only be one film.  In fact, there ended up being so much talk and so many “reports” that a sequel was happening that I stopped believing there would ever be one and then  I was surprised that 17 years later we got one.  So, was the wait worth it for Super Troopers 2?  No, not for me it wasn’t.  I would have been fine just sticking with the one.

It was quite the wait but Farva finally got his liter of cola.

Rabbit is still denied facial hair.

After the events of the first film, our hero officers; Thorny (Jay Chandrasekhar), Mac (Steve Lemme), Rabbit (Erik Stolhanske), Foster (Paul Soter) and Farva (Kevin Heffernan), have lost their jobs after a ride-along with actor Fred Savage resulted in the death of the star.  Trying to live their lives with new occupations, their old boss Captain O’Hagen (Brian Cox) and Governor Jessman (Lynda Carter) ask the boys to once again take up the badge as a land survey discovers that area once believed to belong to Canada turns out to be the property of the U.S.  The guys are met with hostilities by the Canadian citizens, the mayor (Rob Lowe), the cultural attaché (Emmanuelle Chriqui) and the local Mounties they are taking over for (played by Hayes MacArthur, Tyler Labine and Will Sasso).  As the boys try to deal with this animosity, they stumble upon an operation running in the city involving smuggling drugs, weapons and counterfeit electronics.  Meow it’s up to them to found out who is responsible and bring them to justice.

I will admit that the Fred Savage angle was funny as hell.

Going into Super Troopers 2, I had some reservations.  Often when a sequel is released well over a decade after the first one comes out, especially with comedies, the end result is a film that feels like it is just repeating what came before.  An overreliance on callbacks and references to old jokes seem to make up the bulk of this feature and it ends up giving the movie a feeling like it is just repeating itself and almost telling the audience to just go back and watch the first one.  I really wanted to like Super Troopers 2because I enjoyed the first one so much but this feature ends up being derailed by the process I just described.  This sequel feels less like a new adventure or a continuing exploration of the established characters and more of an excuse to try and retell the first film all over again.

Sometimes callbacks are fun but too many of them can feel tedious.

There were moments that I laughed at and enjoyed with Super Troopers 2 but they just weren’t as numerous as the first film.  The overall experience I was getting from this sequel was something that felt too familiar.  The story felt nearly the same and too many jokes felt like they were just remixes or a re-do of what I’ve already seen.  It made for a film that felt mostly stale.  Even when new jokes were ushered in, they often felt like they were all the same.  Sadly, most of these new gags all felt very frat boy in nature and very “bro-ish.”  

And it also delivers all the Canadian jokes you've already heard plenty of times
before.

I went into Super Troopers 2 with reservations but I was still hopeful that I was going to see something very enjoyable.  While there are moments that I found legitimately entertaining and hilarious, the overall experience found me quiet rather than laughing or even chuckling.  The Broken Lizard guys are great and clearly are having fun but, for me, I just didn’t find this sequel worth the wait.  Sadly, there were even points were I questioned if this brand of humor was just not of the current modern era and that they are simply expecting to use what was funny nearly 20 years all over again.  I even was tempted to revisit the first one and see if that was the case…but that may be a task for another time.