Saying it’s an “early 2000s American Comedy” is almost like giving a very precise description. There was something strangely specific and most of it didn’t age that well. I haven’t seen Eurotrip (2004) in a while, but already at the time it was better than the rest, so I hope it is still quite funny. Another favorite of mine from that period was Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) which I used to watch again and again until I didn’t anymore.
Super Troopers also was apart from the rest. First of all, it was an adult comedy at a time when teenage comedies were more prevalent. After all, Old School came after (in 2003) and for me, it was what redirected the genre in a more adult direction.
Anyways, I developed a soft spot for Broken Lizard’s comedies—the comedy troupe that comprises Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske—and it began with Super Troopers directed by Chandrasekhar.
Five bored, occasionally high and always ineffective Vermont state troopers must prove their worth to the governor or lose their jobs. After stumbling on a drug ring, they plan to make a bust, but a rival police force is out to steal the glory.
Super Troopers is an indie comedy. And at the time, when even simpler movies were still costly to produce, making an indie was something else. At least, that’s what it felt at the time. Anyway, that’s just me trying to reconnect in my head with a time that is long gone. I’m possibly a bit off-topic.
So, a group of goofy highway cops like to have fun on the job, but their station is about to get close and the local police are already pushing them aside. They are not happy with that, but they are not really mature and it doesn’t come easy to them to stop and be serious.
That’s the spirit of the movie. A lot of shenanigans—don’t say that word one more time in front of Brian Cox or he’ll pistol whip you!
Jokes aside … well, I mean, I’ll stop joking. The jokes are the heart of the movie and, surprisingly enough, they mostly aged pretty well. Rewatching it today, I’m still laughing out loud to some bits I already know by heart. Sure, which may say more about me than about the movie itself, but Super Troopers has a drunk Brian Cox, so there’s still pure gold in it. In fact, Cox doesn’t have to be drunk to be great. Every line he delivers, more often than not completely defeated by the morons he’s speaking to, is like music to my ears.
He plays the captain of the troopers, a father figure who really like his stupid “kids” except Farva (Kevin Heffernan)—nobody likes Farva—and his job. He wants to keep his station open and he has to solve a mystery to do it. Because there was a need for a story. Without that, it would just be a group of friends having the time of their lives on the job.
Strangely enough, the best part of the movies is everything that is not directly connected to the murder/drug trafficking storylines. The gags, the callbacks, the one-liners, even the cute romance, and the coupe of German swingers are working together to form a strangely joyful movie. The main mystery is not a buzzkill, it just adds nothing of real value to the rest. It feels like a requirement. Without it, it would have been a slice-of-life movie about work friends losing their jobs and still having fun before getting canned. I would have been happy with that anyhow.
It’s certainly not copaganda. Here, the troopers are barely competent or interested in doing policing work, but it’s even worse when it comes to the local police officers, a bunch of morons who really are incompetent, to say the least, but they are acting like … real cops, so the contrast is not flattering. It almost is a satire. It could have been, but the job is not the point.
The point of Super Troopers is to have fun. And it’s pretty well communicated. Jay Chandrasekhar did not have a big budget, but he worked with good comedy material and his friends. There’s not a lot to be impressed by visually, but it’s still solid camera work at the service of the actors and the gags.
So, yeah, Super Troopers is 23 years old and is still funny. At least for me. And that’s why we will talk about Super Troopers 2 soon!
THE ON MY SHELF COLUMN LOOKS BACK AT ALL THE MOVIES IN MY BLU-RAY COLLECTION.
