New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Five Vermont state troopers are more concerned with playing pranks and causing mischief rather than upholding the law, often pulling people over just to joke around with them, though sometimes the ones they pull over are just as twisted. Competing with the local Spurbury police department, the troopers are likely to lose their jobs, since budget cuts by the state government mean that there isn't enough money to fund two sets of law enforcement. However, an unexpected "stop-and-search" on a truck unearths a huge amount of marijuana, which brings the troopers back in the game and a step closer to securing their jobs.

The film comes from Broken Lizard, a comedy group of writers and actors who originally started out performing live sketches at clubs. They set up Broken Lizard Industries, going into feature films with their debut Puddle Cruiser back in 1996. Five years later they followed up with Super Troopers. They've been gathering quite a following with the release of each of their films.

Supposedly led by Jay Chandrasekhar, he has co-written, directed and stars as Thorny, the smart one amongst the troopers. His colleagues consist of Farva (Heffernan), the not so smart one who has been suspended from patrol work after an incident with a schoolbus; Mac (Lemme), who constructs and tests some bullet-proof codpiece thingy; Foster (Soter), who is trying to get it on with Spurbury officer Ursula (Coughlan); and Rabbit (Stolhanske), the bear-loving new guy. They are led by their worn out Captain O'Hagan (Cox).
Given their roots it's no surprise that the film feels like a collection of sketches. Most of them are just cheap shots so stupid that you're sat in silence most of the time, be it chugging syrup, saying, "meow," or seeing a group of men mindlessly beating each other up. It's the kind of thing that's probably more fun to do yourselves, because it doesn't have quite the same effect seeing actors you barely know doing it on film - unless you're the kind of person who has been suspended, or fired, from frequently mucking around at the work place, or you smoke marijuana, in which case you'll probably be more in tune with the characters and their... idiotic stuff.

It's hardly clever, yet despite no laugh out loud instances for me, there are a few comedic moments that do work, notably the opening where the troopers pull over a trio of stoners (it's a shame that the rest of the film rarely matches this). There's little quick-fire wit, though the sexually charged dialogue between Foster and Ursula is mildly risible, as is Mac wanking at near enough 60kph, Thorny telling his son to sit on Rabbit's lap, and a scene involving Rabbit getting it on with a fake bear just to distract the local police (even one of the extras in the background is laughing). However, enjoying these moments probably says more about your reviewer rather than the quality of the film. Along the way, there's a story somehow threaded together, which doesn't really make itself known till the final third.
Super Troopers premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2001. Picked up by Fox Searchlight, they were fully behind the film, and pushed it for a wide release in February 2002 amongst four equally dismal films – Crossroads, Hart's War, John Q and Return to Neverland. It was the lowest new entry, ranking at #9 with a weekend take of $6.2 million. However, a minuscule production budget of $1.2 million meant that it had already raked in a profit. The film managed to take $18.4 million in the US. It slowly found its target audience on DVD and was eventually released on Blu-Ray in 2008, with a DTS HD Master soundtrack and an exclusive picture-in-picture commentary.

The Broken Lizard troupe is eager to shoot a sequel to Super Troopers. With over 40 minutes of deleted and extended scenes on the DVD, they clearly had a lot of material. There have been numerous talks, but nothing has been finalised. However, given the basic premise, it's something that might actually work better as a TV series rather than a film.

Directed by – Jay Chandrasekhar

Starring – Jay Chandrasekhar (Thorny), Kevin Heffernan (Farva), Steve Lemme (Mac), Paul Soter (Foster), Erik Stolhanske (Rabbit), Brian Cox (Captain O'Hagan), Daniel Von Bargen (Chief Grady), Marisa Coughlan (Ursula), Lynda Carter (Governor Jessman)

Length – 96 minutes

Cert – 15 / R