Super Troopers 2 (2018)

The gang all return for this comedy sequel that pits our titular troopers against some hostile Canadian counterparts. If you enjoy the shenanigans of the Broken Lizard comedy team then you'll find enough to amuse and entertain you here. If you don't then this won't convert you.

Having been removed from the force due to a ride along incident involving Fred Savage, the troopers have a shot at redemption when asked to help a small Canadian province transition to America. It's on the border, you see, and the border marking was wrong. So all they have to do is keep order, avoid upsetting locals who don't want to be forced into "becoming Americans", and generally avoid making any major mistakes. Oh dear.

As well as co-starring and co-writing with the rest of the team, Jay Chandrasekhar once again sits in the director's chair for this Broken Lizard feature. He's a very experienced pair of hands by now, and he's always done well enough with handling their own material anyway, which means you get a well-paced comedy that knows how to pack extra laughs into every main sequence.

Alongside Chandrasekhar is Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Erik Stolhanske, and Paul Soter, all reprising their central characters with ease. There's also time to allow Brian Cox, Lynda Carter, and Marisa Coughlan to return, and a number of the main Canadians are played by Rob Lowe, Hayes MacArthur, Tyler Labine, Will Sasso, and Emmanuelle Chriqui, most of them leaning hard into the "sorry, eh" and "that sounds aboot right" comical exaggeration of the Canadian accent.

The plot works well enough, particularly when it starts to become about more than just the rivalry between the Americans and Canadians, but it's also, like the first film, slight enough to allow more space for jokes and skits. It suffers a bit, in the way that most sequels do, but it's surprisingly good, especially when you consider that the guys decided to revisit these characters over 15 years after the original proved to be such a cult comedy success.

This is all being said by someone who really likes almost everything that Broken Lizard does though. Even Quasi. They may not be the most sophisticated, or cine-literate, when it comes to their movies, but they tend to maintain a consistently satisfying gag rate. And I'll continue to reference a number of my favourite lines from their films, even if nobody else tends to get my references. I rewatched this now to get myself primed and ready for the upcoming Super Troopers 3, and I'll be very happy if that manages to be as good as this. 

7/10

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April Fools: Puddle Cruiser (1996)

The first feature movie for the Broken Lizard comedy troupe, Puddle Cruiser has some laughs here and there, but it falls far short of the greatness that they would be delivering just around the corner (starting with the hilarious Super Troopers, and continuing with some other vehicles I have grown to love).

It's the university life for the Broken Lizard boys. Steve Lemme is the charming student named Felix Bean, a young man who finds himself in a casual relationship with a young woman (Suzanne, played by Kayren Butler). Things are complicated by the fact that Suzanne is seeing someone else. They're further complicated by the fact that she's legally representing two friends of Felix, Grogan (Kevin Heffernan) and Matt (Paul Soter), as they try to clear their names of a crime that Felix also had a hand in. Meanwhile, Zach (Jay Chandrasekhar) has been given a telephone number by a girl, but it's missing a digit, which leaves him trying out a variety of combinations. And then there's Freaky Reaky (Erik Stolhanske), who just keeps himself amused by being mellow and freaky.

There ARE funny moments in Puddle Cruiser, but they're relatively few and far between. The lunacy of the campus trial, when Heffernan and Soter get to cut loose, is fantastic fun, but a lot of the material looking at the relationship between Lemme and Butler is a bit flat. Fans of the inspired lunacy that Broken Lizard would bring to their next few movies will most probably end up disappointed when giving this one a go.

The cast all do their best, however, and try to compensate for the material with energy and enthusiasm. Heffernan, Soter and Stolhanske have all the best moments, but Lemme and Chandrasekhar have at least a couple of opportunities to provide some amusement, with the former doing a perfectly fine job as the nominal leading man.

Written by the whole gang, it's Chandrasekhar who directs the action, cutting his teeth here before developing his filmography in a fine selection of future projects, both with Broken Lizard and without. He keeps things simple here, understandably, but does a competent enough job.

I was going to say that this was one for completists only, but I guess there are people who will find it much more enjoyable than I did. So I'll just say . . . . . . . . . approach with caution.

4/10

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