It’s been 17 years since the first ‘Super Troopers’, and these cop characters haven’t gotten any smarter or more mature in the interim. The makers of that film – the defiantly dumb Brozen Lizard comedy troupe led by writer-director-star Jay Chandrasekhar – clearly hope that the intended audience hasn’t grown up either: ‘Super Troopers 2’ consists of a series of gags that aim below the belt rather than at the intellect.
As we check in, our heroes have been dismissed from the police force due to an unfortunate incident involving a B-list celebrity (an amusing cameo you have to wait for the end credits to witness). For reasons that don’t really matter, the gang is reinstated and assigned to replace a group of small-town Canadian Mounties, but the latter lawmen aren’t going to give up their jobs easily. In between a slew of pranks, insults and profane dialogue, the Super Troopers unearth a couple of major drug stashes and set out to track down their source.
There’s a token attempt to keep the audience guessing about the culprits, but audiences won’t be coming to this for mystery. Only the most easily pleased fans of foul-mouthed comedy will respond to these jokes and set pieces, which generally lack cleverness or comic imagination. Too often, the writers-stars settle for childish bad taste over real wit; there are incessant references to male genitalia but the movie is too timid to follow through when two macho guys are dared to kiss. ‘Super Troopers 2’ elicits chuckles here and there, and a few laugh-out-loud moments, but the overall impression is of actors working harder at amusing themselves than at making sure we’re amused too.