Super Troopers 3, the second sequel to Broken Lizard’s popular cult comedy that turns 25 this year, is better than expected. Its secret? Decent gags, plus a lot more ethnic humor, specifically involving Indian-American culture.
It works if you can get past the fact that these guys are around 60 years old and still devote their days to pulling juvenile pranks.
Broken Lizard got their start as a sketch comedy group at Colgate University, from which they graduated around 1990. The original Super Troopers, featuring a group of goofball Vermont state troopers who prank civilians and each other while cultivating mustache growth, was their best and most successful.
Their later comedies, like Beerfest and Club Dread, were hit-or-miss, with the first sequel, which arrived in 2018 after a long crowdfunding effort, about as successful as most comedy sequels, basing its plot on U.S./Canada tensions.
Jay Chandrasekhar is the director, while he co-wrote with the other troop members (Kevin Heffernan, Paul Soter, Steve Lemme, and Erik Stolhanske). A quarter-century later, the characters all still work as Vermont state troopers. Their captain (Brian Cox) is retired, but he’s still hanging around, bored in retirement, while Nat Faxon is the new captain, and SNL’s Andrew Dismukes has joined up as a rookie cop.
The earlier movies devoted an occasional line of dialogue to Thorny (Jay Chandrasekhar), the only non-white guy in the cast, but the new film dives into identity jokes. The inciting incident this time is that Thorny’s sister (New Girl’s Hannah Simone) is saved from a car accident by roly-poly dumbass cop Rod Farva (Heffernan). The two instantly fall in love and are preparing to marry, much to Thorny’s chagrin, and he spends most of the wedding and bachelor party process trying to sabotage them.
There are lots of jokes about “Indian burn,” white/Indian culture clash, and more. It was a big swing to take. I’m also glad that the second film’s pivot to stoner humor didn’t continue with the third one.
These movies always have a crime b-plot, and this time the two villains (Chase Crawford and Jon Rudnitsky) are essentially an evil, Northern answer to the Dukes of Hazzard, complete with a car that jumps over rivers and a hot female accomplice (Lisa Gilroy) who is their cousin. Chandrasekhar directed the 2005 Dukes of Hazzard movie, so the homage was likely intentional. Veteran character actors Iqbal Theba and Sakina Jaffrey both steal scenes as the Thorny’s parents.
The movie doesn’t bat a thousand with the gags, but plenty of them are outstanding, especially an extended bachelor party sequence involving lobsters and EpiPens. There’s also a strong running gag involving an electric car, and various elements that are set up and pay off. The film is at its weakest when it resorts to callbacks and fan service from the first movie. But it’s still much better than the second.