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Released by: Fox
Released on: July 17th, 2018.
Director: Jay Chandrasekhar
Cast: Clifton Collins Jr., Steve Lemme, Erik Stolhanske, Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Seann William Scott, Bruce McCulloch, Paul Soter, Brian Cox
Year: 2018
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Super Troopers 2 - Movie Review:
It didn't look like Super Troopers 2 was going to happen. The big studios were understandably skeptical about bankrolling a sequel in 2018 to a movie that had come out in 2001, but the guys at Broken Lizard - they being Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske - took to a crowdfunding campaign, raised over two million dollars in twenty-four hours and then, maybe not so surprisingly after those results, managed to get Fox Searchlight Pictures on board for another run.
The story this time around is that the cops of the Spurbury Police Department have been fired for accidently killing Fred Savage (who cameos as himself) when he went on a ridealong. Since then, they've been working other jobs but soon enough Farva (Heffernan), Mac (Lemme), Rabbit (Stolhanske), Thorny (Chandrasekhar) and Foster (Soter) are back in uniform when Captain O'Hagen (Brian Cox) decides he needs their help north of the border.
See, it turns out that, according to Vermont Governor Jessman (Linda Carter), there was a surveying error years ago and that a small town over the border in Montreal actually belongs to the United States. Canada has agreed to give the land back, and Jessman wants them to become the new police in town, taking over for a trio of surly Mounties (played by Tyler Labine, Will Sasso and Hayes MacArthur). Meanwhile, one-time hockey star and current mayor Guy Le Franc (Rob Lowe) gets his fingers into a few pieces while a Quebecois woman named Genevieve Aubois (Emmanuelle Chriqui) works as a liaison between the two governments. Of course, there's more to all of this than it seems on the surface, and a reasonable amount of humor, dolled out in equal doses of clever and stupid, ensues.
It stands to reason that if you enjoyed the original film that you'll get a kick out of this one too. Broken Lizard hasn't really tried to do anything all that different this time around, and aside from the way in which the film accentuates cultural differences between Canada and the United States, it is in many ways more of the same. That said, the humor comes fairly constantly and some of it is indeed very funny. Not all of it, mind you - anyone familiar with Canadian culture will find a few of the jokes more than predictable - but it never feels mean-spirited and it's all done in good fun. There's the stoner comedy elements that made the first movie a hit, there's some political digs that are often times highlights, there's goofy sex jokes, a lot of frat humor - it's all there, and it's fine. Not mind-blowingly awesome, but fun.
The returning cast members all do their thing well enough. Chandrasekhar steals a few scenes while Heffernan plays the guy you love to hate about as well as anyone can. Brian Cox plays the straight man well, and cameos - not just from Carter and Savage but from Seann William Scott, Damon Wayans Jr., The Kids In The Hall's Bruce McCulloch, Clifton Collins Jr. and Jim Gaffigan - all add to the film's amusement value.
Super Troopers 2 - Blu-ray Review:
Super Troopers 2 looks just fine in this AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.85.1 widescreen. The colors look quite nice here, the reds in the Mountie uniforms really pop nicely, and black levels are solid. This was shot digitally and it looks it, it's very slick looking without looking at all like film, but the picture quality is solid. There's good detail to take in and solid black levels. Skin tones look normal, no real issues here to note.
The English language DTS-5.1 Master Audio track is a strong one, really opening up the surround channels during the film's fairly frequent scenes of action and chaos. There's good channel separation and strong bass response. Dialogue stays clean and clear and as you'd expect from a brand-new feature, the audio is free of any hiss or distortion. French and Spanish dubbed tracks are provided in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and subtitles are offered in English SDH, French and Spanish.
Making Super Troopers 2 is a forty-minute look behind the scenes that also includes a fair amount of cast and crew interviews. They also take a look at the crowdfunding campaign that was behind getting the picture made, some of the locations and quite a bit more. It's a little promotional feeling at times but so too is it typically quite amusing.
As from that, we get a generous twenty-minutes of extended and deleted scenes (most of which were likely cut for pacing reasons), a two-minute piece entitled Kevin Heffernan: Method Actor that sheds some light on the man's 'acting style' and a trailer. Menus and chapter selection are also included and the disc comes packaged in a slipcover and with an insert containing a download code for a digital HD version of the movie. Additionally, as this is a combo pack release, we also get a DVD version of the movie containing extras that are identical to those found on the Blu-ray disc.
Super Troopers 2 - The Final Word:
Super Troopers 2 doesn't reinvent the wheel but if you dug the first one, there's enough here that works that you'll want to give this sequel a watch even if it isn't as consistently funny as its predecessor. The Blu-ray release from Fox looks and sounds quite good and the disc has a few amusing extras. Far from an essential release, but there are worse ways to kill ninety-minutes and a few brain cells.
Click on the images below for full sized Super Troopers 2 Blu-ray review screen captures!
