SUPER TROOPERS 2 Review: The Stupor Troupe Returns
Legacy sequels: they’re all the rage, despite frequently mixed results. How do you make a sequel to a movie long after the original came out (the benchmark being, surely, the 16 years between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace)? Do you pass the torch to a new cast? Reboot the concept entirely? Or do you use the same cast, taking their advancing age into account?
If you’re Broken Lizard, making a sequel to cult classic Super Troopers, you basically make a do-over.
Make no mistake: the comedy troupe has definitely honed its skills in the 17 years between Super Troopers and Super Troopers 2 (yes, greater than The Jedi-Phantom Gap). The story this time around - a border dispute reveals a small Canadian town is actually part of America, and the first film's disgraced Vermont Highway Patrol troopers are brought in to run the transition - is more complex, its contraband-related mystery better told. It’s pacier and more focused, while retaining some of the looseness that made the original so popular. But this is the same set of characters, engaging in the same puerile pranks against citizens and each other, and waging the same private war against other law enforcement agencies (only this time, it’s the Royal Canadian Mounted Police).
If that's all you need from Super Troopers 2, stop reading now and go see it. You probably won't be disappointed.
Getting a little deeper: if you read that plotline and thought “my oh my, can’t wait for a big ol’ barrelful of Canada jokes,” let me tell you that Super Troopers 2 is your movie, my friend. Said jokes - “isn't it funny how Canadians say ‘sorry’ and "eh" a lot;” “isn't it funny how some people in the world don't speak English;” “isn’t it funny the way Canadians pronounce ‘about’” - actually manage to reach a level of complexity and insight lower than Yoga Hosers, a feat I previously wouldn’t have thought possible. You’ve heard all these "lol, other countries are different to America, The Default Country" jokes before. They aren’t any funnier coming from Broken Lizard.
On the other hand, the scenario lends itself to some ribbing of American culture too. When America sends the Vermont Highway Patrol into Canada, it’s not sending its best, and Super Troopers 2 acknowledges that, to an extent. For my Montréal audience, the jokes at the VHiPS’ expense predictably played far better than the Canadian jokes (although, oddly enough, several of the Quebecois-specific jokes seemed so niche they could only be aimed directly at Canadian audiences). Some of them are even good jokes! Actual satire, rather than lazy stereotypes - more of that would've gone a long way.
But despite Super Troopers 2 occasionally poking fun at the United States’ gun problem, its broken healthcare system, and more, it ultimately comes down on the side of American greatness - even going as far as to champion some of the nation's many objective weaknesses. The Troopers are the heroes of the story, their immaturity cast as a virtue. Hell, even the Mounties declare themselves proud Americans in the end (before it all breaks down into another stupid fight). "Ha ha," says Super Troopers 2, "Imperial measurements are a little bit silly! But lol, we're definitely still better regardless."
Only American cinema really does this - no other national cinema culture so routinely proclaims its country to be "more normal" than other countries. Super Troopers 2 is representative of that groan-inducing, self-congratulatory trend. For the world’s most powerful country, pillorying literally any other country is the definition of punching down. It’s arrogant and gross, and though it probably goes unnoticed in the United States (because, again: The Default Country), it’s grating and tiresome to the rest of us out here.
As for the rest of Super Troopers 2’s jokes: your mileage will vary according to how funny you find staged prank videos. Happily, the cast displays the same likeable camaraderie seen in the first film, and the scenes focusing on their interplay are by far the funniest in the film. But outside of their good-natured workplace riffing, there are only so many laughs to wring out of dudes getting kicked in the balls - to say nothing of the pervasive streak of gay-panicking, male-gazing, cock-waving frat-house crudity that runs through the film. Sure, the comedy in this movie was always going to be juvenile, but juvenile humour can be clever; this isn't. This is a movie where, when a Porta-Potty appears on screen, you instantly know it's going to tip over with someone inside it - and it’ll probably be the fat guy, too. Because fat guys falling over is funny.
Though Broken Lizard’s storytelling and filmmaking chops have grown considerably (not to mention their ability to score amusing celebrity cameos), Super Troopers 2 suggests they’ve gained little maturity in the decade and a half since the original film’s release. If that lack of growth been limited to the characters, the film could have been an opportunity for a comment on growing up. But what we have instead is a tired, sagging movie, populated by tired, sagging men still making pot jokes and fart noises well into middle age.
If you’re able to recapture the baked-out-of-your-gourd joy you found at the turn of the millennium, more power to you. I’m happy that you’re happy. I just ask that you consider for a moment what being trapped in 2001-era stoner comedy says about you.
Though...you probably won’t.
Broken Lizard didn’t.
