Super Troopers
D: Jay Chandrasekhar. (35mm, 101 min.)Things are kinda quiet in these super troopers’ upstate Vermont precinct. The hot-dog highway patrolmen pass the time growing mustaches, chug-a-lugging maple syrup, and (in a pure-genius opening segment) playing mind games with pot-smoking motorists. Things are so slow, in fact, that their precinct is about to shut down. But things change when they find a murder victim in a Winnebago and, later, a shipment of weed in a semi, spurring a jurisdictional feud with the local cops. The murder victim and the reefer are connected by the logo of Johnny Chimpo, an Afghani knockoff of a Japanese animation character (making him “Afghanistanimation”). The gags come fast and furious, and the fair amount of gross-out humor makes Super Troopers play like a cop version of Caddyshack. It has all the depth of a sitcom, but the runaway pacing buoys the film over the occasional flat spot. Super Troopers may be silly and brainless, but these mucho-macho cops are an affable bunch of idiots and the film is downright inspired. It’s hard not to give in to a movie like this. Keep an eye out for Lynda Carter in a cameo. (Alamo, 3/15, 11:45pm; Dobie 2, 3/16, midnight)
This article appears in March 16 • 2001.