Review – Super Troopers 2

Mac, Rabbit, Thorny, Foster, and Farva are back for some more shenanigans in Super Troopers 2, the crowd-funded sequel to the 2001 cult stoner comedy.  The original Super Troopers gained notoriety with the midnight movie crowd as a classic, quotable stoner comedy of pure ridiculousness.

Now most comedy sequels don’t work.  Movies like Caddyshack 2, The Whole Ten Yards, The Hangover Part II (and Part III for that matter) all failed miserably to live up to their predecessors.  Great comedy is like lightning in a bottle, but when you try to replicate it, the magic is no longer there and a lot of the jokes and characters feel forced.

This was my worry for Super Troopers 2, especially with it being a cult comedy and having a niche audience.  Much like most sequels that are made, I didn’t think Super Troopers needed a sequel.  But because of a great crowd-funding campaign and a studio to back them, we have one, and the result is a mild success.

Super Troopers 2 plays like that loud uncle who you see once a year on Christmas.  You enjoy it because it’s been a long time since you’ve seen him or talked to him.  He’s a genuinely funny guy who has some crazy new stories that you enjoy hearing about.  But, he’ll tell you a couple stories he told you last Christmas, which was funny then, but only cracks a smirk this time.  But, as the night goes on, and you’ve had a few too many drinks, his old shenanigans end up being funny and you have a good time.

While watching Super Troopers 2, I was so transfixed in seeing the whole gang all back on screen.  It’s been almost a decade since the Broken Lizard crew made a movie together, and almost twenty years since they donned the Vermont Highway Patrol uniforms.  Seeing them up to their old hijinks was a blast from the past.  However, as the movie went on, the hijinks wore very, very thin and seemed forced, causing the middle portion of the movie to drag.  But, at the end of the day, after I stopped caring about plot and character development, I found myself laughing again and ended up enjoying the movie.

The film’s plot is irrelevant.  All you need to know is that the guys head up to Canada for some bordering issue and are having problems with the local Mounties, a local hockey legend, and government officials, as well as adjusting to the Canadian lifestyle.  The movie makes fun of the American way and talks about the countries terrible government, health care, obesity, and all the other low-hanging-fruit issues of America.  The movie almost feels like an hour and a half long MadTV skit, where it tries to send messages, but it’s all stuff we already knew and jokes that have been used for decades.  There’s a love story, kind of, and no character development whatsoever.  As long as you don’t pay attention or care about the basic fundamentals of storytelling, this movie will work for you.

Super Troopers 2 is a movie that you will have 100% interest in or 0% interest in.  If you haven’t seen the first Super Troopers or any of the Broken Lizard productions, you probably won’t be a fan of this movie.  If you are a Super Troopers and Broken Lizard fan, you should see it and you’ll probably enjoy it.

Did you see Super Troopers 2?  What did you think?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter and Instagram, @kevflix, or on Facebook by searching Kevflix.