“Super Troopers 3” Review

“Super Troopers 3” feels like the worst episode of a horrible sitcom that should have been cancelled long ago with everybody involved wishing they could be anywhere else. Every joke, shot, scene goes on far too long, yet if the filmmakers worked backwards and trimmed every frame that wasn’t working, then all of a sudden there would be no movie at all.

Perhaps there shouldn’t be.

“Super Troopers 3” picks up with the same group of delinquent Vermont State Troopers from the previous two films reporting to a new Captain Markowski (Nat Faxon), who has taken over for the retired O’Hagen (Brian Cox), and hazing a new rookie, Trooper Coy Burns (Andrew Dismukes). Senior Trooper Thorny (Jay Chandrasekhar) spirals over the inexplicable engagement between his sister (Hannah Simone) and the group’s most disgusting, obnoxious member, Farva (Kevin Heffernan). Unable and unwilling to accept Farva into his family, Thorny sets out to sabotage the wedding by any means necessary.

All the while, somebody is vandalizing trucks for a new maple syrup conglomerate moving into Vermont with their cheaper, corn syrup competition and a new drug called Canadian Crystal is appearing all over the state.

In addition to this nonexistent mystery, there are numerous character subplots that are introduced and all fail to different degrees: Mac is resentful of the department’s move into electric vehicles, O’Hagen is bored with retirement and trying to keep himself relevant in the office, Rabbit is jealous of the rookie getting all the new attention that was once his, and Foster and Ursula are going through a conscious uncoupling for reasons that are never really explained.

The original “Super Troopers,” a cult classic comedy, keeps the crime and mystery elements of the story as background to the juvenile shenanigans of the troopers. Here, the criminal caper element feels even less developed than an afterthought, which is more damning when the comedy sketches themselves fail to draw attention away from the poor plotting.

This total lack of care given to the plot could be understood if the effort was instead expended on the humor, the theoretical reason behind this film’s existence, and yet here again the film fails horribly with the writing and performances lazy and uninspired, as if nobody really cared to be here but figured it was an easy paycheck. In lieu of any new, original gags, “Super Troopers 3” relies on a nauseating mix of callbacks to the original film and out of touch racial stereotyping about Thorny’s family, that is neither funny nor clever.

Writing credits are given to Broken Lizard, suggesting the entire comedy troupe played a role in putting together this aimless story, which makes sense as the performers often feel as if there is no script, with Chandrasekhar instead setting up a camera in the hopes of capturing improvisational comedic magic. Unfortunately, whatever magic existed for Broken Lizard in the iconic sketches of their more celebrated films, has long since expired.

Super Troopers 3
Rated R for sexual content, nudity, language throughout and drug content.
Running Time: 1 hour and 44 minutes.

Director Jay Chandrasekhar
Writers Broken Lizard
Stars Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, Hannah Simone, Nat Faxon, Chace Crawford, Brian Cox
Rating R
Running Time 104 Minutes
Genres Comedy, Crime, Mystery