Super Troopers
If you’ve read any of my prior movie reviews, you’d probably think I was only interested in horror films. And really that couldn’t be farther from reality. In actuality, I very much prefer Comedy. I grew up watching Robin Williams play Mork from Ork, Dick Van Dyke trip over an ottoman, and a talking horse. The latter two were reruns from long before my time but that didn’t stop me from watching them.
Super Troopers came out in 2001 and was surprisingly a small win at the box office, ranking in over 18 million per Box Office Mojo. Even still, the real success for Super Troopers, and by extension Broken Lizard who is the comedy troupe that penned the film, was after the fact. This movie really took off once it made it to DVD. I’ll admit that I never even heard of the movie until after it was already on DVD. Back when I worked at a major grocery store in the North East, a buddy of mine was telling me about and highly suggesting it. I ordered the DVD from Netflix - yeah, remember that? - and on first watch Super Troopers entered a spot amongst my all timers. Now the question is, after 25 years, how well does it hold up?
The film follows a group of Vermont officers who can’t get out of their own way when it comes to making each other laugh, even if it’s at the detriment of doing their own job. They routinely pull pranks on one another - and bystanders - and in the context of the film it all works. In fact, the movie actually kicks off with one of their famous bits. If you’ve ever heard “Littering and…” and wondered what it’s from, you’ve now got an answer.
Like any cop flick, there comes a time where they must do their job and actually try the entire police thing out. When they do it has varying results.
Honestly I find this a difficult film to give a spoiler-free review without spoiling much. It’s largely all humor throughout, so to say too much would be to give away the jokes for someone who hasn’t seen it yet. Many movies kick into the main plot line pretty immediately. This movie has more of a cold open to introduce you to the characters and doesn’t really pin in what the plot line is until probably more than 25% through. What I can say is about it is I find this to be one of the most quotable movies I’ve ever seen. I still use lines from this movie today. I’ve played some of the pranks at work. One of the lines from the movie is safe enough I even quote it at Disney regularly. The movie does of course play a romance angle, but it’s not too intrusive to the story, and is used to progress the main plotline.
While the movie does heavily involve drugs, I wouldn’t say this is a “stoner comedy” akin to Dude Where’s My Car or Cheech and Chong. In fact, actual drug use probably takes up about 5 minutes of the entire movie. But that said, it does feature drug use and has nudity (male and female; everyone gets one). So if either of those things aren’t up your alley, then this may be something to steer away from. Fortunately neither one bothers me, so even 25 years after the movie released this is one I still find myself going back to on the regular.
The unfortunate part is, maybe because of that regular viewing over the years, I’m not sure it holds up quite as well. The movie is still incredibly quotable. Some of the humor even holds up. But I expected to be writing a different review right now. Originally I was writing about how the movie holds up after 25 years. I was ready to give it a five, because the movie has always been familiar and hilarious. But the reality is, it doesn’t hold up. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a fun movie to sit through, especially if you’ve never watched it before - but this is a movie that I think I need to let sit for a few years now to see if my next viewing ignites some of my prior feelings about it.
Score: 4 Ramrods
What kind of score is even that?
Spoiler Review
YOU BOYS LIKE MEX-E-CO?
Like I said, this really is one of my favorite comedies. I was watching an interview with the Broken Lizard crew very recently and they said when putting this together, they made an effort to make sure every scene had a joke / comedic element to it. And they succeeded in that.
“Littering and..” “Shenanigans” “Who wants a mustache ride?” “URSALA. I LOVE YOU URSALA.” “Smells like sex in here.” “Enhance…” “Liter-a-cola”
These are still regularly quoted by me.
And maybe that’s exactly the issue. Maybe because after so many years there were no surprises. I was quoting the movie while each scene happened. It wasn’t a conscious effort. It was just.. happening.
It’s funny, because I feel like writing “This was only a 4 out of 5” is me burying this movie. That’s how much I’ve always loved and revered it. To be honest, I love everything from Broken Lizard. Yes, even Slammin’ Salmon and Club Dread. When they released their kickstarter / gofundme for Super Troopers 2 a number of years ago, I couldn’t give them money quick enough to get more of this.
The fact is, it’s still a really fun movie. Maybe not everything makes sense, but those items aren’t plot destroying like other movies I’ve reviewed. For example how Foster is surprised when Ursula gives him permission to punch her after the Winnebago incident. He hands her his icy and is clearly rearing back for it, but then when she gets hit by the foul ball and she dumps the ice over his head he’s goes all “why me”. Or the part how the staties somehow have magical cop cars that can teleport. Because it happened twice.
It is far from a perfect movie. But everyone commits to the bit perfectly. Even.. no, especially Farva for going full frontal and showing his Rod.
There’s a couple of things that really dated this movie for me. More than I expected. One of them was Farva filling his car for $10. Now, I’m old enough to remember when gas was under a dollar a gallon. Me and buddies did the “prank” of putting a buck of gas into the car (We sure were hilarious…). But there was just something about seeing it that cheap and thinking to myself about how when the pump says $10 I’ve only literally just begun filling. And Foster using what appeared to be a Motorola MicroTAC. That was my first ever cell phone. Seeing it again really sent me back. Oh, and those Crown Vic cruisers. Wow.
Overall, I could have watched anything. And the reason I chose to watch this tonight, and will be watching Super Troopers 2 this weekend; is because Super Troopers 3 is out now and I’ll be watching that too. I trust Broken Lizard to always make me laugh. They haven’t failed yet.