Eighteen years after the release of Super Troopers, the sequel is finally in theaters proving that it’s best to strike when the iron is cold.
Yes, it’s Super Troopers 2 and, in the interest of full disclosure, I donated 20 dollars to help crowdfund this movie, but I promise I will keep this review professional and unbiased even though, when you think about it, I’m basically a… producer of Super Troopers 2.
Oh dang, I can totally pad my resume with that.
The Super Troopers have been super-fired, but when a border dispute puts a small Canadian village in the United States, the boys put on their tan uniforms again to help the town make the transition to becoming full fledged Americans, but they also have to deal with the Mounties who don’t want them there, a town who don’t want them there, and a smuggling operation that they don’t quite understand.
Okay, considering that other long-delayed sequels like Zoolander 2 and Dumb and Dumber 2 have been, let’s face it, face-meltingly awful, the true victory of Super Troopers 2 is that it is not… face-meltingly awful. The cast members really seem to effortlessly slip back into their characters and, yeah, there are some funny situations even though the movie never seems to reach the subversiveness or the energy of its predecessor.
Yes, it’s funny. The stupid drug references and practical jokes the characters play on each other, as well as the sequences where they get back on the roads and mess with motorists work great. That’s the plus.
The minus is that the Canadian riffing… it just isn’t that funny. Now, I have no problem messing with Canada because it’s Canada, but in this movie it just seems like it’s neverending and neverfunny. The bad phony accents adopted by some of the actors, the exaggerated Canadianess from others…. In Super Troopers 2… everyone wants to be the comic relief and no one wants to be the straight man.
Although it doesn’t seem to be respected anymore, movies like Super Troopers need the straight man to ground the comedy to keep it from becoming overly stupid and unrelatable. By having all of the Canadians be over-exaggerated stereotypes, we loose the connection to reality… Super Troopers 2 could have taken place in the land of Oz for all we know.
That being said, it’s funny. I won’t lie. I laughed at the comedy when I was supposed to more than enough to justify the ticket price which is really all I wanted. As a fan of the original, I am happy with this sequel even though it does not measure up to the original by a long shot.
And, honestly, I’m glad to see this movie get made because it really does feel like a victory for little guys who just wanted to make a sequel for their fans.
Jason Gaston 