The film bravely ends with a promise and a proposed plot for a fourth outing

REVIEW: Super Troopers 3

When the original ‘Super Troopers’ was released a quarter of a century ago, it certainly seemed like a simpler time when you could milk gags out of zany police officers in Vermont staging elaborate roadside stops to mess with innocent and increasingly bamboozled car drivers.

To be fair, this new film swerves around any thorny issues from recent American history. Instead, it cheerfully carries on regardless with the same juvenile antics of now fifty-something state troopers as they get embroiled in pranks, street races, jumping cars over rivers and generally upholding the law very loosely on their rural beat.

I actually really enjoyed the original film but the less said about the first sequel the better. This instalment is at least an improvement. The main spine of a pretty skinny plot is the marriage of the new police chief’s sister Sarita to the boorishly unpopular Farva (Kevin Heffernan). The couple meet when Farva rescues Sarita after she was run off the road.

The most amusing recurring joke is the other officers speculating what syndrome an awestruck Sarita is suffering from with her inexplicable attraction to Farva. Alongside the upcoming nuptials, the inept cops are also slowly aware of a new drug smuggling operation in their area.

Will these two storylines collide? Of course they will. And the results are fitfully amusing but stop well short of delivering big laughs. Some of the silliest most surreal bits aren’t remotely funny. One officer gets encased in maple syrup which leads nowhere. Or nowhere good. The comedy seems locked in a time capsule. Typified by one grey haired officer (who in reality would be nearing retirement age) still vying to be named best rookie at the station.

Broken Lizard is the name of the comedy troupe behind the film and they take collective responsibility for the script. Though doubtlessly there is lots of improv at play here with gaps left for the cast to goof around and riff off on tangents. Whether any of this leads to comedy gold is debatable.

And it’s not a creative environment that leaves much air for the few female performers to flex their skills either. Despite the fact that Sarita is played by the highly accomplished Hannah Simone who proved her comedy chops on ‘New Girl’ on TV.

Double jobbing actor Jay Chandrasekhar also pulls directing duties. He has amassed plenty of sitcom directing credits over the years interspersed with the occasional stab at big studio releases like ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’. He wisely keeps things moving at a clip resulting in the optimum running time for a comedy of not much over ninety minutes.

The film bravely ends with a promise and a proposed plot for a fourth outing for the Super Troopers. On this evidence, that sounds like wishful thinking. Stranger things have happened. Though the telling thing is - funnier things have happened too….