February 14–21, 2002

movie shorts

Super Troopers

As gross-out comedies go, this one, despite its promise of "a joke every six seconds," is almost low-key. Written and acted by the Canadian comedy troupe Broken Lizard (Steve Lemme, Kevin Heffernan, Jay Chandrasekhar, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske), Super Troopers is an Airplane!-like series of sketches. These are occasioned by a whiff of a plot, having to do with a crew of Vermont state troopers about to be defunded by the governor (Lynda Carter). Though their boss (the venerable and apparently fearless Brian Cox) instructs them to stop cutting up and harassing drivers and start making drug busts, they’re rather determinedly inept and prone to high-schoolish bodily function humor. One of the troopers is consorting with one of their rivals, a local cop played by Marisa Coughlan (last seen being abused by Tom Green in Freddy Got Fingered ). Another borrows a confiscated stolen Porsche for a midnight ride, and still another borrows the Porsche’s Euro-trashy driver and passenger for a sexcapade. Some jokes hit, most don’t.

—Cindy Fuchs

(AMC Andorra; AMC Orleans; UA Cheltenham; UA Riverview; UA 69th St.)