Super Troopers 2 is a broad comedy, the long-gestating crowd-funded sequel to the 2001 cult classic. The movies opens on a chase scene and then ends up checking in with the former officers, fired from the local police after an unnamed Fred Savage incident, working construction. Due to a boarder reassignment part of Canada is being taken in to Vermont and the crew is reactivated as State Police as part of the transition team. They are faced with aggression from the locals and the Mounties they are replacing and when they stumble upon a mysterious cash of various drugs suspicions peak.
It's nice to see the cast again but some of the old magic is simply out of reach. Kevin Heffernan as Farva steals every scene he's in and is the only one who's able to recapture, even top, his previous performance. Steve Lemme as Mac also gets close to his original frenetic magnetism. But the other core cast members aren't as successful. Paul Soter as Jeff doesn't have much of a presence, Brian Cox as the chief is having fun but not doing much, Erik Stolhanske as Rabbit is unable to capture his original naivete, and Jay Chandrasekhar as Ramathorn the backbone of the first one is derailed by an ill conceived and narrative spanning estrogen gag.
Certainly entertaining enough but almost exclusively as a nostalgia piece and antiquated "non-PC" humor which at times works and at times comes across as stupid and clueless. The biggest issue is that it seems like the guys of Broken Lizard don't necessarily know why the first one was so successful. The sequel seems to focus more on the machinations of the absurd plot as oppose to build to protracted comedic set pieces. The characters are also less likable, less charming. Some of the reasons why the first one worked so well was that the "narrative" was secondary to long lovingly crafted comedic sequences as well as the inherent goodness, although prone to pranks, of the squad. The sequel is just a little more confused, a little flatter. There are still jokes aplenty and it is nice to revisit these characters but some of the shine has been lost.
Stream It.
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