Movie Review: “Super Troopers 2”

**** out of 5
100 minutes
Rated R for crude sexual content and language throughout, drug material and some graphic nudity
Fox Searchlight

Article first published at TheReelPlace.com

Broken Lizard may not be a household name, but their movies are cult favorites. They struck comedy gold when Super Troopers finally made it to theaters back in 2002. And the laughs continued with Club Dread (their best movie) and Beerfest (their funniest). But Broken Lizard Industries went severely awry when Jay Chandrasekhar handed the reins over to Kevin Heffernan for The Slammin’ Salmon (their worst).

So, after a nine year theatrical hiatus, how does Super Troopers 2 stack up? Well, the best thing they did was give control back to Chandrasekhar.

Our favorite Vermont highway patrolmen — Thorny (Chandrasekhar), Farva (Heffernan), Mac (Steve Lemme), Rabbit (Erik Stolhanske), Foster (Paul Soter), and Captain O’Hagan (Brian Cox) — are back! After being fired years ago involving the death of Fred Savage, it’s time to bring the gang together again. Turns out, the Canadian/Vermont border isn’t where everyone thought it was, and now, the boys are sent to patrol the new American property. But not if a trio of Canadian mounties — Podien (Hayes MacArthur), Bellefuille (Tyler Labine), and Archambault (Will Sasso) — and Mayor Guy LeFranc (Rob Lowe) have anything to do with it.

Shenanigans is the name of the game for any Broken Lizard movie and Super Troopers 2 does not disappoint. I’m sure there will be some who will be let down that this is the best they’ve come up with after 17 years — the plot is exactly the same, just with more Canada jokes, eh — but damn if this isn’t hilarious from start from finish. The whole cast slips right back into their roles, helping to ensure maximum hilarity. Cox even gets to be funnier this time around.

Does everything work? It’s a comedy, so of course not. But there are huge laughs and plenty of chuckles. You’re bound to leave with at least a smile on your face. Both Canada and America get blasted with Broken Lizard’s patented slapstick/wordplay, and while it could never be perfect, it also never feels like it should have been straight to video. The boys still have every bit of charm and with Chandrasekhar back at the helm, the time for more Broken Lizard films is meow.