Super Troopers (2001) Review

"YOU BOYS LIKE MEXICO!?"
-Mac



In northern Vermont, near the Canadian border, a group of State Troopers patrol the highway near the town of Spurbury.  With budget cuts threatening their employment, and the Spurbury police doing everything in their power to make sure they lose their post, these reckless, crazy, and unreliable Troopers have to actually do their job and prove to the state that they are worth the taxpayers money.  When they discover a possible drug trafficking ring running through their turf, the Troopers have to take on Spurbury P.D. to take credit for the case, but they also have to keep their obnoxious dispatch operator, Farva (Kevin Heffernan) from screwing everything up.


What Works:

Super Troopers has one of the greatest opening sequences of all time.  This movie peaks almost immediately.  It involves the Troopers messing with a group of teenagers who are driving, while stoned out of their minds.  It just keeps escalating to greater levels of insanity and serves as a great introduction to each of the Troopers.  It all leads to my favorite line of the movie, seen at the top, with Mac (Steve Lemme) pretending to be a criminal who just killed the other Troopers, stealing a police car with the stoners in the backseat, driving like a maniac, and threatening to take them to Mexico.  It's a hilarious and fantastic tone setter for the rest of the movie.  Unfortunately, the rest of the movie never gets this good, but Super Troopers killed it with this opener.

The chemistry of the cast is excellent.  You can tell they all really like working together and are having a blast making the film.  That kind of chemistry really shines through and it feels like you are right along side them on this wacky adventure.

It may not ever get to the levels of the opening, but this movie is very funny.  There are lots of hilarious moments: shenanigans, watching Captain O'Hagen (Brian Cox) get drunk, and Rabbit (Erik Stolhanske) getting...familiar with a fake bear.  All of these scenes and more are laugh-out-loud funny.


What Sucks:

Not all of the jokes lands, there are a few duds from time to time.  And the narrative is a little bit all over the place.  It never feels cohesive.  It's more like a bunch of random crap happening.  It's fun random crap, but it could have been tied together more neatly.


Verdict:

Super Troopers is a hilarious movie.  It has some flaws with a few dud jokes and a weak narrative, but it's still really funny and has great chemistry between the cast.  Plus, no hyperbole, it has one of the greatest opening sequences in film history and it has definitely got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good 



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