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Super Troopers
A Review by Mark McLeod
September 7th 2002
The town of Spursburry, Vermont is just your regular old run of the mill
suburban town where not a heck of a lot happens. The only real crimes
occurring are the occasional speeder or domestic dispute. The town does
have more then it's fair share of law enforcement with both the highway
patrol and the local cops fighting over jurisdiction. The highway
patrollers are a bunch of cops that enjoy clowning around with people more
then actually arresting or charging them. Their captain (Brian Cox) wants
them to clean up their act, catch more speeders, handout more tickets and
perhaps uncover information about illegal activities taking place in town.
One day word comes down that the department is in danger of being closed
due to lack of funds. It just so happens that news comes as the same time
of a strange murder which appears to have connections to drug
trafficking. Although the local force claims responsibility for the
investigation, the troopers begin to look into things as well and despite
their own orthodox methods and juvenile behavior they do manage to uncover
some crucial evidence. The problem is that the two forces hate each other
so much that they refuse to work together to get to the bottom of the
crime. However the troopers do get some help from local cop Ursula (Marisa
Coughlan) who has been relished to desk duty and is eager to get out into
the field. Meanwhile things don't go entirely perfect for the troopers as
one begins to fall in love with someone on the opposite force while another
pull's a stunt at a local Burger Joint that just might cost the entire
group their jobs. With the odds clearly stacked against them can the
troopers overcome their unprofessional work ethic to crack the case? Or
will they be looking elsewhere for new employment?
"Super Troopers" marks the directorial debut of Jay Chandrasekhar and the
first appearance of New York's Broken Lizard Comedy Troupe on the big
screen. The film caught the eye of Fox Searchlight Pictures at Robert
Redford's Sundance Film Festival who bought the rights to release the film
theatrically. At first when I saw the theatrical trailer and TV Spots for
the film I was not sure what to make of the film as it looked rather dumb
and unfunny though there was something memorable about the quote used in
the film's advertising which attracted my friends and I to see the film on
one boring Sunday night when we had very little else to do or see. This is
an interesting film in that it's a roller coaster ride of up's and downs
throughout. There's not a heck of a lot of a plot though the story does
seem to progress ever so slightly through what could be considered as a
series of sketches. Director Chandrasekhar does a decent job of directing
this motion picture though he occasionally is unable to make up his mind as
to weather the jokes or the story should come first. At times the film just
zips along while in some other places it slows down almost to a crawl. He
handles the cast and especially his friends from the troupe quite well as
he get's the best out of his performers.
Speaking of the film's performers, the majority of the cast is this film is
made up of members of the Broken Lizard Comedy Troupe who are basically
involved with every aspect of this independent film. Playing the state
troopers are Jay Chandrasekhar as Thorny, Kevin Heffernan as Rodney
"Ramrod" Farva", Steve Lemme as Mac, Paul Soter as Foster and Erik
Stolhanske as Rabbit. Each of the troopers has their distinct personality
type from the more mature Thorny, to the wild and off the wall Foster and
lastly the insanely demented and angry Farva. While all the performances
were good, the two that really standout against the rest are Kevin
Heffernan's Farva and Steve Lemme's Mac. Over and above all else the roles
those two actors play are more caricatures then real people and are just
the zany off the wall types that you'd expect to find in one of these
comedies. In addition to the comedians, the film does feature some actors
including the always strong Brian Cox as the no nonsense Sergeant. Cox has
to play things fairly serious and does a good job balancing the antics of
his subordinates. The same can't be said for actor Daniel Von Bargen who is
the most vocal and cartoony member of the rival police force. Von Bargen is
best known for his military roles in several key films. Last but certainly
not least is the always lovely Marisa Coughlan who plays the troopers
inside source in the police department. Coughlan who gave a strong
performance in the otherwise weak film "Teaching Mrs Tingle" doesn't have
much to do here but she lights up each and every scene she's in.
"Super Troopers" is a funny little gem of a film that really works better
then it should. It's got what I'd consider only an outline of a story but
when the jokes work they work quite well. Although a number of jokes still
manage to fall flat on their face, the number that hit is still much larger
then the ones that miss. One thing that does harm the film is that at 103
minutes in length it's almost overstaying it's welcome. The story doesn't
progress as quickly as it could and there are a few too many scenes that
while funny don't really fit in with the rest of the film. Still director
Jay Chandrasekhar and his Broken Lizard Comedy Troupe have made a film that
does more right then it does wrong and provides an enjoyable if not always
consistently entertaining motion picture. It's not the funniest comedy I've
seen all year but there are moments where the laughter flows quickly.
Movie Rating : 7.5/10
The DVD
VIDEO: Fox Searchlight Pictures brings "Super Troopers" home to the DVD format
with a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen recreating the film's original
theatrical presentation. I did have a chance to see the film theatrically
and the print I saw left a negative impression on me as it was washed out
and lacking any real definition. This DVD transfer fixes all the problems I
had with it in the theater and seriously bests that viewing experience.
Although this transfer isn't without it's flaws it does more right then it
does wrong. The 1.85:1 framing features a well defined and solid visual
image that with the exception of a few minor nighttime scenes is
consistently sharp. Colors are bright and vibrant never once appearing
washed out or under saturated. The green grass and forest trees are
especially rich which gives the film a nice warm look. Given the film's
rather low budget one could expect the film to look a lot worse then it
does and while there are problems they are kept to a minimum. The
transfer's biggest problem is that it uses an over abundance of edge
enhancement in certain scenes. While it's applied mildly in each sequence,
it does get to the point where it becomes a bit of a distraction. The same
can be said for a number of print flaws that appear early on in the film.
Luckily these tend to go away after about the second reel of the film but
given the age of the picture these type of flaws should have been a non
issue. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with how good this film looks on the
small screen because it didn't look this good on the huge theater screen.
Aside from a few minor issues this is really nice work from the team at Fox
Searchlight.
Video Rating : 8/10
SOUND: "Super Troopers" is presented by 20th Century Fox in Dolby Digital 5.1
Since the film is clearly a comedy I wasn't really expecting much in terms
of an audio mix though I was pleasantly surprised to learn "Super Troopers"
only has a light case of the comedy audio syndrome. The most surprising
aspect of the audio mix was the rock score by 38 Special which clearly
elevates this track to the next level. Now don't get me wrong for the
majority of the film's running time things remain up front but when the
music comes in the surrounds come into play. Dialogue is mixed loud enough
that it won't get drowned out by viewer laughter. Sound effects usage is
minimal and almost entirely in the front channels though from time to time
something may come from the rear. Aside from the rock score the subwoofer
doesn't really see much action though that's to be expected given the genre
of the film. All in all "Super Troopers" isn't destined to become the next
comedy reference disc but it does sound pretty good.
Audio Rating : 8/10
EXTRAS:
This DVD edition of "Super Troopers" contains just about everything the
film fan could want. Kicking off the disc are the two feature length audio
commentaries which between them contain every member of Broken Lizard. The
first track is the filmmakers commentary and features director Jay
Chandrasekhar and Erik Stolhanske while Paul Soter, Kevin Heffernan and
Steve Lemme sit down for the second track. Both commentaries contain some
interesting information about the making of the film and the forming of the
group though each one tends to repeat a great detail of information from
the other. I enjoyed listening to samples of each track and at times there
is some really funny material but there just wasn't enough there for me to
spend nearly four hours with these guys talking about their fairly
straightforward motion picture. After all how much can really be said
about this sort of film.
Next to the commentaries the section most likely to interest fans of the
film is the combination deleted scenes/outtakes section of the
disc. Contained within this section of the disc is an outtakes reel which
runs 16 minutes in length and features the Broken Lizard team cracking up
during some fairly juvenile pranks and gags. In addition to the main set of
general outtakes there are some more scene specific gags like "Pot
Outtakes", "Helping Grady's Nephew and Rabbit in the Garage" as well as
"Slap a Burger Guy and Politicians are Donkeys". Just like the main feature
itself, this section offers two optional commentary tracks including the
same participants mentioned above. Some of this material is funny but like
the film itself it's mostly hit and miss for the 20 odd minutes of running
time.
Now for what could be considered some of the strangest bonus material I've
ever seen we have what is labelled as "Featurette" as well as the "Road
Trip Newsletter". The former appears to be some sort of behind the scenes
look at the Spursburry police department and State Troopers. It serves as a
simple introduction to the story and the film's cast of characters. Backed
by a serious sounding voice over describing the situation the featurette is
simply just an extended trailer with some short interviews of the star's in
character. Lasting a mere five minutes this is nothing but filler material
that although attempting to be funny misses it's mark big time. The latter
is a two minute highlight reel of a cross country trip taken by the Broken
Lizard comedy troupe to promote their film on various college
campuses. This one has a much lighter tone to it but is still just
basically a commercial for the film.
Also included is the theatrical trailer for "Super Troopers" as well as a
video trailer for "Kung Pow : Enter the Fist".
Extras Rating : 7.5/10
Final Thoughts:
"Super Troopers" isn't an all out laugh riot but it is a comedy that
managed to get more then it's fair share of laughs out of someone who is
becoming more and more cynical by the minute. The laughs aren't the smart
and witty kind but the film never has to resort to disgusting gross out or
toilet humor and that's always a good thing. 20th Century Fox and Fox
Searchlight have a nice little comedy on their hands here that will only
gain a larger audience on DVD. The "Super Troopers" disc features a nice
1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer as well as an above average Dolby
Digital 5.1 comedy audio mix which is lead by it's presentation of .38
Special's film score. In terms of bonus features Fox has gone above and
beyond the call of duty on this non special edition release by including 2
audio commentaries, deleted material and a couple odd featurettes. If you
haven't seen "Super Troopers" or are not sure that it's the film for you
then it might be a good idea to rent the disc, otherwise if your already a
fan of the film then there's no reason not to buy this DVD.
Disc Rating : 7.5/10
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