It's sort of reassuring to know that the world has returned to the type of place where law-enforcement can be ridiculed — as it is with glee in "Super Troopers."
And this scattershot comedy is nothing if not gleeful — unlike most of its more mean-spirited comic competition. In fact, the film's sense of not-so-clean fun will probably remind a few of such late-'70s and early-'80s comedies as "National Lampoon's Animal House" and "Caddyshack."
Not that this inconsistent comedy comes close to matching those films laugh for laugh, mind you. But it still has a few inspired moments, and at least one or two gags that are laugh-out-loud funny.
Members of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe (Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske) co-wrote the script and star as the title characters, a group of misfit Vermont highway patrolmen looking for ways to amuse themselves — that is, when they're not feuding with local police officers.
Unfortunately, their fun may be coming to an end. Their chief (veteran character-actor Brian Cox) tells them that, due to budget cuts, their department is perilously close to getting the axe.
But during a routine traffic stop, the troopers manage to stumble their way onto a big case that could save the department — one that involves illegal drug shipments and a murder that may be connected.
Again, though the jokes are hit and miss — heavy on the latter — there are some smirk-worthy bits, such as a maple-syrup chugging competition. And director Chandrasekhar (who also co-stars as the troopers' unofficial leader) keeps the gags flying fast enough to make at least some of them stick.
"Super Troopers" is rated R for crude humor (including sexual sight gags), violence (mostly slapstick), occasional use of strong profanity, simulated drug use and drug content (involving marijuana and other hallucinogens), nudity (brief male full and some partial female), simulated sex acts and use of racial epithets. Running time: 100 minutes.
E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com