1146. Super Troopers (2001)

Starring: Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme

Director: Jay Chandrasekhar

Running Time: 100 mins

Super Troopers is an American film about a group of highway patrol officers who, in between pulling off pranks while on the job, engage in a fierce rivalry with the local police force that ultimately puts their department in danger of termination.

Well, this is a pretty idiotic comedy, full of juvenile humour, and no really interesting characters. However, it’s a really fun film to watch! The stupidity level is definitely pretty high, but it’s not a frustratingly juvenile comedy; there are actually a lot of good jokes throughout to keep you laughing, even though you may not be particularly interested by what’s actually going on around them.

The unexpected thing about this film is that it manages to make a stupid comedy, with all the atmosphere of a terribly juvenile movie, not that painful. There isn’t any terrible toilet humour, and it’s very low on the American Pie-ish teen gross-out humour, meaning that you can turn your brain off and enjoy a stupid, but still thoroughly enjoyable comedy.

The funniest part of the whole film is its various running jokes about the rivalry between the highway patrol unit and the local police department. It’s as ridiculous as anything, but it’s an idea that we haven’t really seen too often in cop comedies, and the fact that it is actually funny to watch an exaggerated version of this supposed rivalry is pretty refreshing once again.

So, the main objective of this film, which is to be a stupid comedy, is a pretty solid success, and that’s why you should watch it, but make sure you have your brain turned off, because if you think about it a little too much, it may disappoint you a little.

As an actual film, this doesn’t hold up as well, because its story, which is largely a mystery that threatens the survival of the highway patrol unit, isn’t really that interesting at all, and although there is a decent twist at the end, you’ve never been interested enough to really care about that.

Along with that, the characters aren’t great either. I know great characterisation isn’t to be expected from a silly comedy, but films like Anchorman have done it, and that’s why this doesn’t have as high a rating. The characters are fun and all, but again, you never really care enough about them as people to be that interested in the fact that their department may be shut down.

Overall, though, Super Troopers gets a 7.0 from me, because despite a pretty low-quality plot, its excellent humour and ability to keep you laughing consistently makes for a very fun watch.