The third installment of the cult comedy franchise Super Troopers fails to bring enough laughs or any real justification for its existence, according to a new review.
A time-capsule comedy that doesn't age well
The original Super Troopers (2001) was a scrappy indie made by the comedy troupe Broken Lizard, which pooled their money after losing out on an MTV show. It became a cult classic, grossing over $60 million in post-release sales on a reported $3 million budget. The film featured Brian Cox gleefully playing against his serious actor persona, with lines like “I’ll believe ya when me shit turns purple and smells like rainbow sherbet.”
Now, Super Troopers 3 is exactly as good as you would expect the third installment of a time-capsule comedy to be. The racial and ethnic jabs that were once smartly framed now feel forced and utterly snapless. The car chases, group hijinks, and playful digs at Canada land differently now that the US has started treating its northern neighbor as a potential addition to the union.
Familiar faces, tired gags
Everyone looks older, heavier, and weary behind their gold-wire frame sunglasses and bristly mustaches, as if they’re just punching the clock on their gravy train. Kevin Heffernan bears the brunt of the physical comedy as Farva, the obnoxious trooper. Farva gets his closeup, perhaps to the chagrin of Jay Chandrasekhar – the film’s director and Broken Lizard frontman, who also plays Farva’s longtime rival, the Indian-American trooper Thorny.
The tension kicks up when Thorny’s sister (played by New Girl’s Hannah Simone) is mysteriously run off the road, and Farva rescues her just before her Mini explodes – a brave act that sparks instant love, an engagement, and much debate over the precise term for Florence Nightingale syndrome. As the Indian wedding arc unfolds, the troopers are also sort of working another drug-smuggling case, one seemingly destined to end with them cracking it just in time to get booted off the force again.
Why the franchise feels dated
The Spy v Spy games between Farva and Thorny are meant to be the heart of the film, but this third installment can’t hold a candle to the original. There’s a reason cartoons are animated: drawings aren’t expected to grow, learn, or reckon with the passage of time the way flesh-and-blood characters are. A coyote chasing a roadrunner through the desert doesn’t age nearly as poorly as a bunch of troopers still chasing the same old gags for 25 years.
Super Troopers could have passed the baton to a new generation – SNL’s Andrew Dismukes is a notable bright spot as the crooked rookie cop – but even that wouldn’t overcome the central problem: the idea of cops as an uncomplicated source of screwball comedy doesn’t stand up at a time when policing itself has become the subject of intense public scrutiny, particularly over racial disparities and immigration enforcement.
The pop culture image of police as sterling heroes isn’t as untouchable as it once was. Their incompetence doesn’t make them lovable screwups – it makes them exceedingly dangerous. The fact that Super Troopers 3 willfully ignores this is what truly dates the franchise.
Super Troopers 3 is out in Australian cinemas on 6 August and in the US and UK on 7 August.
