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Super Troopers 2
If there is a germ of truth to the promise of good things coming to those who wait then Super Troopers 2, the belated sequel to Jay Chandrasekhar's goofy 2001 comedy, should deliver 95 minutes of hilarity. The film's production budget - more than 4.6 million US dollars - was raised through a crowd-funding website by devoted fans, who were desperate to see more high jinks channelling the anarchic spirit of the Police Academy series. They should demand their money back because Super Troopers 2 is a miserable excuse for entertainment, which repeatedly pokes fun at the cultural divide between America and Canada without any obvious purpose or punchlines to hit a target. There is a throwaway observation in the clunky script penned by comedy troupe Broken Lizard: "Actors should never play cops. They never get it right." Lamentably, the madcap quintet of Kevin Hefferman, Paul Soter, Steve Lemme, Erik Stolhanske and Jay Chandrasekhar don't take their own advice and portray both Vermont State Troopers and Canadian Mounties as they force us to endure painfully close encounters with a hungry bear and the rotating blade of a sawmill. The dim-witted trooper team of Farva (Hefferman), Foster (Soter), Mac (Lemme), Rabbit (Stolhanske) and Thorny (Chandrasekhar) have disbanded after an unfortunate incident involving actor Fred Savage (playing himself) and a wayward cat. Out of the blue, the buddies receive invitations to a fishing weekend with old boss, Captain John O'Hagan (Brian Cox). The get-together is a ruse to reunite Farva, Foster, Mac, Rabbit and Thorny for a face-to-face meeting with Vermont's governor, Jessman (Lynda Carter). She discloses that a land survey has uncovered errors in the boundary markings between Canada and America. An area of land including the French-Canadian town St Georges du Laurent will be reclassified as US territory and Jessman needs a small team to replace the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in advance of the handover. "Vermont's about to get a little more head room," jokes the governor. Farva, Foster, Mac, Rabbit and Thorny meet fierce resistance from the town's bouffant mayor, Guy Le Franc (Rob Lowe), and Mounties Archambault (Will Sasso), Bellefuille (Tyler Labine) and Podien (Hayes MacArthur). Thankfully, bilingual cultural attache Genevieve Aubois (Emmanuelle Chriqui), who coaches a girl's hockey team, oils the wheels of diplomacy and takes a shine to nice guy Rabbit. Super Troopers 2 splutters from one puerile and ridiculous interlude to the next, without clear narrative direction. The script parades crude humour and xenophobia in a desperate search for just one laugh and Thorny's addiction to female hormone pills, which make him lactate, would have been past its use by date in the 1980s. Footage of Fred Savage's demise is reserved for the end credits. Like the rest of Chandrasekhar's ill-advised picture, it's not worth the wait.
