Starring:

Directed by: Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, Brian Cox, Marisa Coughlan, Daniel xon Bargen, Linda Carter

2001 Broken Lizard/Fox Searchlight

It’s happened to all of us at one time or another. You’re tearing down the road, doing 79 in a 65 trying desperately to get home in time for your favorite show, as fast as you can without hitting 80, because 15 mph over the speed limit is actually excessive. 14 is totally cool though. On go the lights, reflecting red a blue off the darkened trees in front of you, instantly hitting you in the pit of the stomach with an uneasy feeling the maybe 14 isn’t cool. And maybe getting home in time for How I met Your Mother isn’t worth an 80 dollar ticket. You pull over and turn down the radio and you start praying for a smashed taillight as you fumble in the darkness for your registration. Then the officer approaches the car… instructs you to roll down your window… and starts making cat noises at you.

That’s never happened to you? Yeah, well me neither. But if that, or half the games the cast of Super Troopers play on their unsuspecting motorists, are true, then getting pulled over might be something to actually look forward to. Or terrified of. Confrontations with the law are stressful enough without them mocking you straight to your face, but how fun can a game be where if you mock the person back they can throw you in jail?

Super Troopers is the hilarious cult classic about a group of Vermont state troopers, brought to us from the minds of America’s best attempt at Monty Python since The Kids in the Hall. That troop, Broken Lizard, take an inside look at the lighter side of police enforcement showing that people in even in the most intimidating professions, are just like us. Sometimes they’re even a little more retarded then us.

It’s hard to say why Super Troopers became Broken Lizards break out film. Their first feature, Puddle Cruiser (a romantic comedy wrapped in the college experience) has some great ideas and more than a few truly hysterical moments, but never really connected on a larger scale. It won the Hamptons International Film Festal Golden Starfish Award and would eventually go on to Sundance, but Puddle wouldn’t be the big splash to put them on the map.

Perhaps it was just a case of “been there, done that�. Even with the sharp writing and solid story, Puddle Cruiser’s collegiate love triangle was filled with story themes and characters that we’ve seen a dozen times before.

Every story that can be told has been told, but at least Super Troopers was able to take the “drug conspiracy/inside man� angle and work in a grown man having sex with a puppet of a bear. De Niro never banged a bear, but I bet he could have made it gritty. It’s the outrageous ideas like that combined with an actual plot that distinguishes Super Troopers as a comedy worth remembering. Like Caddyshack, The Jerk, and Office Space, Super Troopers is coherent enough to sit through and so funny that it’ll burrow into your head and haunt your dreams. There are worse ways to wake up then laughing.

What makes the success so sweet is that Super Troopers is, in almost every sense of the word, and independent film. The Broken Lizard guys Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske not only wrote and starred in the film, but also edited, directed, promoted, and raised the money for production. Their cult level success was a huge boost for independent film in league with movies like Swingers tand My Big Fat Greek Wedding hat started small and hit big. It’s the kind of movie that makes people sit up and take notice, and while Broken Lizard aren’t collecting Vince Vaughn level paychecks, at least they can get a movie about beer, featuring a frog masturbation scene, greenlit. Nia Vardalos can’t do that. Well, not anymore anyway.

On screen, Broken Lizard have an obvious chemistry that can only be forged with countless hours of seeing each other naked, and as painful as that sounds, it really pays off. Their comedic timing and performance are so spot on that I find myself quoting the way Steve Lemme say “Bu-bye�. Not because of the context but because of the delivery. You could tell they were working hard, and you could tell they were having fun. That little bit goes a long way in terms of making Super Troopers a great movie.

The supporting cast is insane. Marisa Coughlan and Daniel xon Bargen both come off as if they’ve been in the Broken Lizard group as long as the big 5, and Linda Carter still looks amazing nearly 30 years after last wearing her Wonder Woman costume, but the real question is - What the hell is Brian Cox doing there? For those of you who don’t know Brian Cox, he’s an acclaimed British actor who you’ll recognize from movies like Manhunter, The Ring, Braveheart, The Jason Bourne Movies and X2: X-Men:United. He’s one of those old actors that are too cool for their own good, but not a big enough douche bag to rub it in your face and make you call him “daddy�. For him to show up in a small movie like Super Troopers to play the loveable, stressed-out, at one point deliriously drunk, police Captain, and really nail it on the head is completely awesome.

In the commentary, director Jay Chandrasekhar reveals Cox’s fondness for the old Jerry Lewis comedies, and that Cox had told him (I’m paraphrasing here) “every actor should do a big comedy at least once.� Of the two straight comedies he’s done I think Super Troopers holds up better than 2005’s The Ringer in which he costarred with Johnny Knoxville. Not only was the subject matter naturally uncomfortable, but Cox plays the jerk. It’s funny, but it’s a hard fought laugh. I have high hopes for his next comedy Running with Scissors, but to be honest it looks like a pretentious head trip as opposed to Troopers and the Ringer which are not at all treading the line between comedy and drama.

The only fault I can find with the movie is length. There’s a point where the story takes a back seat to the jokes and the pacing begins to drag. I think this period begins somewhere around the time Farva (Kevin Heffernan) gets released form his suspension. The scenes that follow of him calling the old couple (Heffernan’s real life parents) “chicken-fuckers� and his attack at the fast food restaurant are some of the funniest stuff in the film, but there’s a point where all these funny ideas have to start forming into a coherent story, and the Broken Lizard boys push that limit a little too much.

In re-watching the film multiple times I definitely got used to pacing, and started to appreciate each scene as its own classic moment. And even though the plot points are sparse and hidden in potential nonsense, the complete story manages to piece itself together and make sense.

But everyone knows the comedy is this movies strong suit and that’s what will bring people back. Drug smuggling and crooked cops are a dime a dozen in modern cinema but how many films boast Afghanistanimation and soft core porn quality mustaches. Succumb to the power of mustache! Movie: 9 out of 10

Ok, it loses half a point right off the bat because we see Farva’s penis. I’m sorry. It’s completely upsetting every time it pops up. It’s almost worse when you know it’s coming. I bet De Niro could have pulled it off though. Make it real gritty.

DVD features

It’s actually a deceptively nice set. You get some standard stuff like the theatrical trailer, and a cross promotional trailer for Kung-Pow:Enter the Fist, but the real prize is in the outtakes and commentaries. The combination offers a real perspective on Broken Lizard’s experiences writing, shooting, and promoting the film. It was a unique behind the scenes look at a group of guys working really hard to make the best movie they can, and then getting that movie to the masses.

There are two commentary tracks with the Broken Lizard guys. Wisely they split the group of 5 into 2 groups so that there would be 2 coherent tracks of information instead of 1 track of 5 guys talking over each other. With these smaller groups everyone has a chance to have their say and a lot of good stories are told. Sadly, there are some stories that appear on both tracks, but I found comfort in hearing it the second time around. Like I was in on the joke. And even with the overlap there’s still enough original information to make each track worth listening to.

Stand outs

The outtakes are extensive and really well displayed. They have it set up where what was cut from the movie is in color and what actually appears in the movie is in black and white. It creates a nice example of how they trimmed up certain scenes for content or pacing. And in case it wasn’t clear enough why things were cut, there are 2 commentary tracks on the outtakes, deleted scenes, and alternate ending to give you all the details.

To be honest the shear volume of content that was there shocked me. Some of it was just a snip here or a snip there, but it’s cataloged and displayed really nicely. After watching the film 5 times over the past week it was really cool to see this other end of the filmmaking process. It brought a lot to a movie I was already in love with anyway.

What’s missing?

There’s little to miss, but there is a featurette on the DVD for Puddle Cruiser where they show the group on the streets advertising Super Troopers. It’s fun to see them working hard and pushing free tickets on people that want nothing to do with them. In a weird way it’s inspirational because you can see that they’re just a group of friends that decided one day to really go for it. They’re normal guys that decided to follow their dreams and that’s pretty cool.

Seeing that footage of their humble beginnings, and then seeing them now as a successful group, making movies, banging hot chicks, and hanging out with Willie Nelson, is encouraging. There are a lot of people out there that want to bang hot chicks, hang out with Willie Nelson, or even just bang Willie Nelson. And because of people like Broken Lizard… we know it’s possible.

DVD: 8 out of 10

An impressive set that offers a lot of info on Broken Lizard’s process and the group itself. Is 2 commentary tracks and a couple dozen deleted scenes with their own coupling of commentaries too much information? Maybe. I’m down for as many extras as possible. Stuff like this just helps bring my fandom of the movie and group to a new level. But there is definitely a lot of information there, and not all of it is necessary. Jay Chandrasekhar voted for Nader, and lost his virginity at the age of 15 to a red head. There’s no reason I should know that, but I do, because of the commentary tracks on this film.

DVD Worthy:

Definitely. Do you think I could have watched this 5 times in 1 week if it wasn’t DVD worthy? Super Troopers is a rare modern classic. It’s genuinely funny, outrageous, and quotable like only an instant classic can be. There are better DVD’s out there but are they really going to give you what you need? Yeah ,Return of the King was a cinematic achievement, Brokeback Mountain reinvented the love story, and Crash had the whole world talking, but at the end of a long day of work you’re not going to put a sob fest into the DVD player. You’ll be reaching for Fletch, or Happy Gilmore, or Office Space, or Super Troopers. Accept the comedy classis and laugh your ass off already!

Non Movie Related News:

Wow, I got such a huge response from The Departed strip. There were so many e-mails urging me to check out the Hong Kong classic that inspired it, Infernal Affairs, that I may be doing a review for that in the next couple of weeks. Give the readers what they want right?

A quick shout out today for my buddy Tom Brazelton over at Theater Hopper who is having a sale on Theater Hopper: Year One. Only 15 bills! I got my copy in the mail last week and trust me… it’s epic. I have a story I’d like to tell about the book, but it requires me uploading some pictures. While I get that together do yourself a favor and order the book. At 15 dollars you won’t be disappointed.

Not much else going on. Even though the site doesn’t reflect it, I’m in production mode. I’m gearing up for a full week of strips so I can get rid of all the movies that are about to come out on DVD. I’ve got about 6 strips completed I just need to finish up (in some cases START) the reviews. I’m excited about some of the strips though. You’ll see the return of a special character that hasn’t been around in a while, and I’m really pumped about that. There’s something nice and comfortable about returning characters. I really need a character page… I’ll add it to the “to do� list.

So I’m gearing towards the full week to be next week, but I’m not 100% on that. I’m still going to try and get another 2 out this week. I’ll keep you posted though. Be sure to check this section in the next update. Also, be sure to keep your eye on the Joe and monkey guest week. There’s some good stuff going up this week. All right. See you when I see you.