Super Troopers (2001/Broken Lizard/Fox Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: C Films: C
Though
they have not become runaway comedy troop, the Broken Lizard gang is one that
continues to hold in there, able to be as gritty and wild as the Judd
Apatow/Greg Mottola and have their act together. Perhaps they are considered more subversive,
which might be why people in the know are still talking Jay Chandrasekhar’s Super Troopers (2001), which seems to
have been actually delayed a year for its theatrical release. Maybe it was the events of 9/11 or a
conservative mood (release by Fox notwithstanding) gave its release bad timing,
but here it is on Blu-ray already and it is an interesting comedy for sure.
No, it is
not great (part of its appeal?) and there are funnier films out there, yet the
goofiness displayed with the police and criminal drug use on the part of those
being chased has some throwback feel of the 1970s bandit/chase cycle. Those films often featured inept cops (think
Jackie Gleason or Clifton James) and here, we get a whole team of them, stuck
in the middle of nowhere, not having to really do (except goof around) anything
until “events” force them to go to work.
It plays like an edgier version of the popular Reno 911 with less restraint.
So this lands up being one of the few hard-R rated leave your brain at the door
films anyone has done well in years and on that grindhouse level, the appeal is
understandable. If you do not have high
hopes, you will be amused. To day much
more would ruin any laughs, but if you like this kind of film, you’ll want to
catch this one at least once.
The 1080p
1.85 X 1 AVC @ 30 MBPS digital High Definition image was shot on 35mm film by
Director of Photography Joaquin Baca-Asay, whose camerawork here has better
composition and blocking than you usually get in films like this; one of the
reasons it works better than most of its competition. Baca-Asay has moved on to work with serious
directors like Mark Romanek and is now James Gray’s current cinematographer
(see the Blu-ray review for We Own The
Night) next lensing his film Two
Lovers. This transfer is a bit
softer than I would have liked, but is pretty good otherwise. The DTS HD Master Audio (MA) lossless 5.1 mix
is also not bad, but shows the limited budget on the film, plus how joke and
dialogue-based this really is, sounding as good as it is going to get. The band .38 Special actually did the score.
Extras
include the original trailer, a drinking game, PIP commentary, stand alone
featurette, Outtakes & Deleted Scenes (including Alternate Ending) with
optional audio commentary and two feature-length audio commentaries. One is with Chandrasekhar and
Co-Writer/Co-Star Eric Stolhanske, the other with cast members Kevin Heffernan
(who also co-wrote the script for this film), Steve Lemme & Paul Soter.
A sequel
is in the works for a 2010 release, so you might want to see this now in
advance of that. Hopefully, it will be
better than Chandrasekhar’s Dukes Of
Hazzard revival and all will get back to raw basics.
- Nicholas Sheffo
