Super Troopers (Review)

Upside-Down? Ha!

The much revered Super Troopers is OK I guess but not the laugh out loud irreverent laugh fest some make it out to be.

In a sleepy town near the Canada / US border the ‘law’ consists of two groups, neither of whom seem to worry too much about enforcing the laws or keeping the peace, if anything they are responsible for more noise and infractions than the citizens of the town.

We are supposed to like the Highway Patrol group though, not the regular police. The highway Patrol are a small group of 5 officers and the police chief played by Brian Cox.

They spend the day patrolling a 50 mile stretch of highway and finding new and juvenile ways to amuse themselves at the expense of motorists – one notable way is trying to inject the word ‘miaow’ into proceedings as often as possible with a straight face. Two cars roam the area with two officers in each, with the captain and a gormless and tactless moron manning the radio, wishing he could be out there with them, pranking, slacking and being a menace to polite society, pausing only occasionally to rumble with the regular cops.

The dilemma for the Highway Patrol is that apparently not arresting anyone and getting into trouble yourself isn’t a solid long term proposition, and the powers that be have tabbed the dissolution of the group to save tax dollars – which if you have read a single word above makes complete and utter sense.

The last remaining hope for the department comes when a big drug smuggling case seemingly falls into their laps, and the group immediately set about trying to solve the case and rebuild their fragile reputations. Only problem is that the regular cops know about the drug smugglers too, and they realise that this might be the chance to get rid of the Highway Patrol for good.

As I referred to earlier this is all well and good, but any laughs here are to be derived from the early silliness. The early scenes where the officers annoy and frustrate road users are amusing and occasionally chuckle-worthy, but aside from those brief moments and a couple of catch phrases the remaining laughs are supposedly found in the crude language, nudity (usually fat male) and the fat guy yelling louder than Will Ferrell. I can get that stuff in any teen sex comedy or Will Ferrell film – but I often choose not to.

Hardly sounds like the unearthing of an amazing and truly original comic genius in Broken Lizard, the troupe that make up the bulk of the cast. Nonetheless for about 15 minutes a decade ago that was what several critics and the teenage population would have had you believe. I think the subsequent decade with one lousy film (Club Dread) and precious little else has show us the truth.

Final Rating – 6.5 / 10. Super Troopers gained cult status and I’m fine with that – a lot of other films better and worse have found that fate. Just don’t try to sell me that this is anything different or unique. It is essentially a frat-house Vs frat-house film, only with dumb horny drunken cops in place of the usual dumb horny drunken teens.

About OGR

While I try to throw a joke or two into proceedings when I can all of the opinions presented in my reviews are genuine. I don't expect that all will agree with my thoughts at all times nor would it be any fun if you did, so don't be shy in telling me where you think I went wrong... and hopefully if you think I got it right for once. Don't be shy, half the fun is in the conversation after the movie.
This entry was posted in Film, Movie Reviews, The Grey Area. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.