Directed By Jay Chandrasekhar

Starring – Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme

The Plot – When Farva’s (Heffernan) over-the-top Indian engagement to Thorny’s (Chandrasekhar) sister spirals into chaos, the Super Troopers must navigate Thorny’s schemes to break up the relationship, all while trying to bring down a pernicious new drug ring

Rated R for sexual content, nudity, adult language throughout and drug content.

SUPER TROOPERS 3 | Official Trailer | Searchlight Pictures

POSITIVES

Between the appealingly juvenile shenanigans of the original installment, and the deliberately reheated fan service of its sequel, a third film to the Super Troopers universe might’ve seemed like a dicey proposition, especially now that these actors are twenty-five years older than when they initially broke onto the scene, but while Super Troopers 3 is much closer to the latter than the former, there are still incremental gains in small and sporadic doses that at least keep its most hardcore fans faithfully invested, such as the entirety of the collective ensemble seamlessly stepping back into their wild card characters without ever missing a beat in the eight years since the last addition. This is realized the most in Kevin Heffernan’s crudely childish Rod Farva and Jay Chandrasekhar’s tumultuously annoyed Thorny, who here combine chaotically for a rivalrous brotherly dynamic that enacts a desperate game of one-upmanship that reflects the extent of their agonized partnership, but even with the rest of the guys submitting stoic supporting turns this time around, there’s still commendable energy and personality unloaded towards their meaningful portrayals that help bring to life the razor sharp chemistry that serves as the backbone of this entire franchise, with plenty of contemporarily relevant talking points and conflicts to show their outdated ignorance in their incapability to evolve as people. While the fabulous fivesome are still the very pulse that gives this franchise life, there are also some credible fresh-faced additions that ultimately keep them from doing all of the heavy lifting, like Saturday Night Live’s Andrew Dismukes, who sheds conventional layers to surmise the kind of emotional dexterity that prove the tremendous range of the young comedian, as well as longtime writer, director and actor, Nat Faxon, who impeccably nails the timing and vulnerability of a Broken Lizard project so consistently that it feels like he’s worked among them for years, let alone decades. Beyond the charismatically prominent performances, this third film also exudes the most convincing production of the entire franchise, particularly in the minimizing of the greenscreen backdrops this time around, but also in the presentational categories of framing and camera work that provide visual flare for a film that could’ve just as easily went straight to streaming on HBOMax. Because of such, the eight years since its stunted sequel has provided plenty of learning for Chandrasekhar as a visual storyteller, that are paid off compellingly during some slightly above average action sequences, breeding enough intensity and urgency to overcome its campy atmosphere, but beyond that boldly intoxicating lighting schemes during a couple of scenes throughout Farva’s bachelor party, and while nobody in the audience watches these movies for stimulating style, it’s nice to see Chandrasekhar inflating his ambition to at least make this feel cinematic in sections, offering plenty visually to chew on when the storytelling and humor aren’t up to task. On the transitioning to that script, there’s plenty to scoff at that I will get to later, however there are a couple of noteworthy twists that caught me and my expectations off-guard, especially once the film thankfully deviates back to the guys investigating this drug ring, rather than wallowing in the depraved confines of Farva’s wedding planning. One such character shifting motivation was the firmest that I got towards investing in this movie faithfully throughout its 99-minute duration, allowing the established conflict a much more expansive and eye-opening reality than what we’ve come to expect with these movies, and while it merely paints a mastermind to the operation, it’s still a subtle touch to inject stakes, consequences, and especially impact to the depths of the storytelling, and one that matures its childish antics gracefully in a far superior second half.

NEGATIVES

Above all else, Super Troopers 3 is a mostly unfunny and humiliating effort towards once again rekindling the fan service of the past, with its distinct brand of off-beat shock humor neither landing consistently enough or executed creatively enough to make the engagement anything other than an agonizing affair. If the humor isn’t landing in a movie like this, very little else capably matters, and between the script continuously deviating between the same kind of reheated leftovers from gags that were pulled directly from its 2001 first installment, or fresh material without the timing or conviction of the actors to effectively deposit groanworthy dialogue that absorbs silence in a near-full auditorium, the film surmises a mostly laugh-less affair that tragically makes me feel like I outgrew the material, leaving nothing in the way of subtlety or grace in articulating punchlines that feel transparent as close as minutes before they materialize. The script itself is a jumbled and disjointed mess that enacts a tug-of-war between two respective creative ideas, the likes of which it refuses to compromise in balancing one over the other, leaving so much about the finished edit of the film lacking meaningful momentum in pacing this film into feeling anything other than twice its length. The wedding planning goes on for what feels like an eternity in the firm grasp of the movie’s focus, without periodic deviating into other arcs or outsider characters, in order to maintain the freshness of its appeal, and considering the script overwhelms audiences with an individualized arc for every member of the trooper team, the majority of which go nowhere rewarding for the delivered destination, it astonishes in the rarity of being the Broken Lizard movie involving far too much plot and not enough effective humor, leaving some of the familiar extras along for the ride condensed without the need for much importance or justification for their inclusion. Such examples of diminishing returns are those of Brian Cox and Marisa Coughlan, two original characters from the first film who here are just kind of standing around waiting while Chandrasekhar chooses to incorporate them, and while it was nice to see each of them for the minimized time allowance that we received alongside them, it points to the Toy Story problem, in which its five-team writers and singular director has difficulty in finding methods to justify their imprinted value on the film, an unfortunate aspect that will be even more difficult in a fourth Super Troopers installment, now that we’ve brought along a trio of new characters from this installment. In deviating back to the script for a second, while I previously commended the opportunity to indulge in some unforeseen twists with certain characters, they don’t correspond with the big reveal of a mysterious culprit running Thorny’s sister off of the road during the opening sequence of the movie, leaving audiences on the edge of their seats with a captivating framing device that is among the easiest that I’ve ever effectively solved, as quickly as it was introduced. I express this grievance because not only are the list of possible suspects limited by their placements and motivation on the fateful night, but it’s telegraphed by sequencing so obvious and on-the-nose that it only leaves one possible direction to stir the eventually unloaded pot, which the climax in itself is even disappointing, as a result of surmised stakes that are squandered by measuring a near-death attempt as nothing more than a nagging mosquito bite. On top of this, the overly familiar plot device of Farva marrying into Thorny’s family feels so painfully sitcom television that it telegraphs the dynamics of the duo involved long before we’ve ever had a chance to interpret it for ourselves, compromising the longevity of the characterization in ways that personally bothered me possibly more than others. Being that the cool-as-a-cucumber Thorny has been my favorite character since the original movie, his restless insecurity and destructive tendencies here completely feels like an unwelcome deconstruction of the character, especially considering Farva’s own crudely obnoxious consistencies are somehow endearingly charming to Thorny’s family. I think if the script maintained authenticity in the air of these characters, then it would’ve made for a more unpredictably uncomfortable and awkwardly enticing dynamic, but because it reverses their roles in ways that makes each of them feel unidentifiable, it ultimately feels inconsistent with everything that came before it, without anything wholly original or interchangeably endearing for the kind of opportunity like it play out thousands of times on the smaller screen.

OVERALL
Super Troopers 3 is a rambunctiously vulgar single joke premise that not only fires blanks towards mustering any semblance of comedic consistency, but also concerns itself with an overwhelming amount of exploratory storytelling that tests the patience of its chemically-altered audience. While the permeating chemistry of its policing force feels just as evident as it did twenty-five years prior, the reheated material doesn’t offer enough originality in the way of creative evolving, cementing straight-to-streaming nostalgia made nauseating by arrested development that took eight years to muster unmemorable.

My Grade: 4.6 or D