‘Super Troopers 2’: Old Stoner Comedies Never Die, But They Do Age (FILM REVIEW)

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It’s a funny thing about me and the first Super Troopers, which was released in 2001: it just never landed on my radar. I was in college, worked in the service industry, and hung out at a bar that unplugged the jukebox to play The Grateful Dead Hour every Wednesday night.

And yet, despite fitting perfectly into Super Troopers‘ target demographic, it went completely unseen by me for several years. Years later, by the time I got around to catching it on cable (in pieces, and mostly out of order — though I’ve probably seen that opening sequence about 600 times), it seemed like the window to truly appreciate it had closed forever.

I mean, I still got it. It was still funny. Just not the kind of line-quoting, side-splitting hilarity that had enamored so many of my friends in the early aughts. Whatever it was that had truly endeared the film to so many stoners was lost on me by then — something I realized again when I rewatched Super Troopers earlier this week in anticipation for the sequel, which is, appropriately enough, hitting theaters on 4/20.

Like the Broken Lizard team that created the comically inept quintet of bumbling Vermont State Troopers, its target audience has grown up, gotten jobs, and started families, but still flocked to the advance screening that was shown earlier this week. And I get it. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, and those who grew up guffawing at the sight of a grown man in a cop’s uniform guzzling a jar of syrup were eager to revisit that magical time in their lives.

Super Troopers 2 obliges those desires, finding (most of) its heroes now working construction after a calamitous incident costs them their jobs. They’re thrown back into action thanks to a recently discovered issue with the U.S.-Canadian border that necessitates them going to a small Canadian town to help ease their transition of becoming American.

It does not go well, hence setting the stage for all the 90-some minutes of hijinks that follow. This time there are mounties, bears, and Canadian accents galore (oh, my). Also, Rob Lowe as the town’s mayor, who comes off like a Canadian Chris Traeger with worse hair.

And overall it’s… fine. It’s fine. The jokes are predictably juvenile, but everyone seems to be having a genuinely good time serving them up, which will likely be reciprocated by devotes of the original filing into theaters this weekend.

Super Troopers 2 is meow playing in theaters everywhere.

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