Super Troopers

I'm fairly picky when it comes to comedies.  There are many reasons for that (discriminating taste, enough intelligence to see punchlines coming, a love of context-based humor, and utter snobbery), but I am usually willing to give a movie the benefit of the doubt and just rip it a new asshole once it's over.  I was definitely prepared to do that the first time I saw Super Troopers.  When a friend brought the DVD over to watch, everyone in the room groaned.  To be fair, that particular buddy has some pretty terrible taste and the television trailer for the movie looked wretched.  I've seen funnier commercials for the ASPCA.  Since my friends and I were open-minded (and we relished the possibility of revoking our friend's movie recommendation privileges), we chose to watch Super Troopers, despite our misgivings.  Good move, young Brian and Friends.

As with most comedies, the plot is pretty basic.  The Vermont State Troopers based in the Canadian border town of Spurbury are on the verge of being shut down, with their responsibilities (and budget) probably going to the jerks in the Spurbury Police Department.  That's not terribly surprising, since these State Troopers spend their time at work fishing, joking, masturbating, and smoking evidence from drug busts.  These amateur cops accidentally stumble into a murder/drug investigation, but can they solve the crime?  And will that be enough to make them look moderately competent?

A: Nope

No, the plot isn't anything special.  What the plot of Super Troopers does is allow the sketch comedy group behind the film, Broken Lizard, many episodic opportunities to crack wise.  Honestly, I usually don't like movies based on sketch comedy because the plots are awful and they are usually filled with a single joke spread over ninety minutes.  **cough, cough, anything originating from SNL in the last eighteen years, cough cough** What I appreciate most about Super Troopers is how well each sketch in the movie is framed.  The officers pull over a civilian and more or less ask each other what pranks they are going to pull this time.

Oddly enough, this is funny with context

It's a simple way to make a movie, but it's damned effective.  My favorite thing about Super Troopers is that the humor is generated within each sketch --- meaning that it isn't random or pop-culture based --- and that helps it stay rewarding even with (especially with) repeat viewings.

Nobody in the cast was going to win an Oscar for Super Troopers, but I thought everyone was pretty good.  The standout actor in this film is definitely Kevin Heffernan as Officer Farva; he has the best lines and perfectly embodies an annoying guy you like to laugh at.  The rest of Broken Lizard all turned in solid performances with their own highlights; Jay Chandrasekhar's ethnic and swinger jokes were great, Erik Stolhanske's rookie was made for hazing, Steve Lemme's Mac was consistently funny (and has both mine and my dad's favorite scenes), and Paul Soter managed to not suck, despite being the character with a romantic subplot.  Brian Cox added some much-needed legitimacy to the film, and he showed off that he can be pretty funny when he wants to be, too.  Daniel von Bargen was solid as the hard-ass Spurberry Police Chief.  Marisa Coughlan might have been in the film to add a romantic interest for Soter, but she pulled off a convincingly strong and likable female character in a movie where that was light years beyond what was required of her.  You might recognize a few other supporting cast members, too.  Jim Gaffigan, before he was famous, had a bit part, as did Lynda Carter (although hers was an "after she was famous" bit part).

Meow!

Philippe Brenninkmeyer, Joey Kern, and that bastard who married Christina Hendricks, Geoffrey Arend, all have minor (but memorable) roles, too.

I simply cannot believe this jackass married a hottie

What makes Super Troopers such a funny movie?  Honestly, I credit Jay Chandrasekhar for editing (and, I suppose, for directing) the crap out of the film.   Every scene has several jokes in it, and most of them are throwaway gags that don't detract from the story.  The weakest parts of the film are the ones that propel the plot forward, but even those have many fun moments.  The best parts are the scenes where the team pulls over drivers.  Maybe it is the perfect cop mustaches.

Maybe it's the material.  Maybe it is because the humor feels original and is usually hard to predict.  Whatever the reasons, I truly appreciate the blood, sweat and tears that went into the post-production on this movie, because it is a lean, mean comedy machine.

After I saw Super Troopers in college, I went home and rented the movie to show off to my family.  Well, not all my family --- mainly my father, who is a very funny man and helped shape my sense of humor.  His immediate reaction to my suggestion was the same as mine: the commercials made it look like crap.  I managed to talk him into watching the first scene, and from there he was hooked.  And when I say "hooked," I mean "having trouble breathing because he was crying from laughter."  To give you an idea of how funny my father found this movie, he decided to try and get my mother (a very generous and nice woman, although not nearly as funny as us male folks) interested in the movie by showing her this scene:

How high off laughter was my dad to think that his wife --- who isn't a big fan of stupid humor --- would watch a scene with a bullet-proof cup and the line "good enough to fuck your mother" and think to herself "Perhaps this is a film I should spend some more time with."  My dad is an idiot.

Is Super Troopers a masterpiece?  Absolutely not.  It's not very clever, the story is weak, and the characters are not very sympathetic.  I absolutely love this movie, though.  It is stupid humor at its best, and varied enough to make you want to watch it again --- and you are rewarded if you do, because the script is jam-packed with half-audible lines and throwaway jokes that you didn't catch the first time through.  This is easily the funniest movie I have seen in the last decade.

For the record, my favorite moment in the movie is when Mac tells Rando to sit down in the diner.  The timing of the syrup bottle is so perfect, it gives me the giggles every time.

The Slammin' Salmon

Comedy troupes are an interesting anomaly in the movie world.  Sure, you have the megastars like Monty Python and...um...well, okay, so there really isn't any other group that has been continuously successful on the big screen.  Some of my favorite groups, like The Kids in the Hall and The Whitest Kids U' Know, have only made one movie.  With that duly noted, I think that it's pretty cool that the guys in Broken Lizard have managed to put out their fifth movie, The Slammin' Salmon.  The group is best known for Super Troopers, but Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske have managed to write, act, and direct (well, Chandrasekhar has) in four pretty solidly stupid (and consistently funny) comedies before this.

The movie takes place in the Slammin' Salmon restaurant, named after owner/professional boxer Cleon Salmon (Michael Clarke Duncan).  Basically, Salmon is a moron.  He lost a lot of money gambling and needs the wait staff to bring in $20,000 in one night --- that's about twice as much as the restaurant's best night ever.  To sweeten the deal, a cash prize is offered to whichever waiter makes the most money, while the loser will be pummeled by Salmon.  The wait staff primarily consists of Broken Lizard, with Chandrasekhar playing a mentally ill (but medicated) guy, Heffernan as the wussy manager, Lemme as a failed actor, Stolhanske as a jerk, and Soter as a cook and a twin brother on his first day at work.  There are two waitresses, April Bowlby (the stereotypical blonde) and Cobie Smulders (the smart one), as well.  Obviously, some hijinks must ensue for this to be a comedy, so the wait staff performs some shenanigans and the customers cause problems. 

The supporting cast is fairly noteworthy, with Jim Gaffigan, Will Forte, Lance Henriksen, Morgan Fairchild, Vivica A. Fox, Olivia Munn, and Sendhil Ramamurthy making appearances; fans will also notice a few recurring actors from other Broken Lizard movies playing small roles.  All of these roles are shallow and most are lazy stereotypes, with few generating more than a smirk.  Ramamurthy's reactions to his girlfriend's (Munn's) inanities are mildly amusing, but the other recognizable actors are pretty useless here.  Of these supporting roles, only bit player Michael Weaver really gets an opportunity to be funny. 

That makes sense, though.  Movies about waiters are never about the customers because waiters will deal with dozens of customers per shift.  The main interest has to come from the waiters.  Unfortunately for the viewer, things don't work out so well in that department.  The bizarre mentally unstable performance from Chandrasekhar is probably the best of the bunch; when medicated he is terribly awkward and not funny, but when he's off his meds, he takes on another persona that is much, much more amusing.  Soter is okay in his dual role, but nothing special.  He plays twins for only one predictable joke, too, so he split his efforts for no real reason.  Lemme was decent as an actor, but he wasn't very funny, either.  Stolhanske was just terrible, though.  The two waitresses were inconsequential.  All in all, the wait staff was pretty disappointing.

That leaves the management as the only possible saviors for this movie, and they almost pull it off.  Kevin Heffernan is annoying as the manager, but he is the funniest actor in the group and that makes his scenes more tolerable than they should be.  A lot of his scenes are almost funny, but not quite there.  Luckily, Michael Clarke Duncan ends up carrying this film.  As the almost freakishly large boxer, Duncan dwarfs everyone else in the cast.  His booming voice and (let's be honest) stupid dialogue provide much of the motivation for the other characters.  Their reactions to him and his expectations for them offer a lot of opportunities for humorous interactions and the occasional profane one-liner.  I wouldn't say that his performance would steal the show in any comedy, but it is definitely the bright spot here.

Overall, this was a disappointing directorial debut for Heffernan.  Most of the problems were in the script and this was filmed during the 2008 writer's strike, so they might not have been allowed to improvise or improve their lines.  That doesn't excuse this movie, though.  The premise is uninspired (make money or get beat) and isn't even revealed to the waiters until halfway through the film, for some reason.  The entire first scene with Heffernan as a waiter should have been cut because it isn't funny and has nothing to do with his work as manager.  Soter had no real reason to play twins, but the fact that there are twins makes you wait for a "I thought you were the other one" moment.  That moment eventually arrived, but was not worth the wait.  The acting was competent from most, but only Duncan looked like he was having fun. 

Worse than that, Broken Lizard tried and failed to work outside of their comfort zone.  They are at their best with contextual humor, not one-liners.  I can't tell you how many Super Troopers quotes I have heard, but I can tell you that only people who have seen the movie laugh.  Since the waiters are on their own at each table, there is not much banter between the staff.  This means that the humor has to come from jokes, which Broken Lizard has never excelled at in the past, and certainly failed with here.  The best moments are when the established characters get screen time together, which includes almost all of Duncan's performance (which, I would like to reiterate, was funny).  Had the movie spent more time with the managers or the cooks and less time with customers, this film might have been saved.  Instead, we get a Waiting... knock-off, minus the stupid fun.