Super Troopers 3, 2026.
Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar.
Starring Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Paul Soter, Steve Lemme, Erik Stolhanske, Brian Cox, Marisa Coughlan, Nat Faxon, Chace Crawford, Andrew Dismukes, Hannah Simone, Iqbal Theba, Sakina Jaffrey, Jon Rudnitsky, Lisa Gilroy, Iqbal Theba, and Lynda Carter.
SYNOPSIS:
When Farva’s over-the-top Indian engagement to Thorny’s 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.
“We love racial humor here”, crass, insensitive, and offensive radio operator/patrolman Rod Farva’s (Kevin Heffernan) soon-to-be mother-in-law (Sakina Jeffrey) says during an Indian-themed cultural dinner where the former is attempting and failing to be on his best, most respectful and accepting behavior to win over the family and marry superior patrolman Thorny’s (Jay Chandrasekhar, once again directing and collaborating on the screenplay alongside the rest of the Broken Lizard troupe) sister, Sarita (Hannah Simone).
For Super Troopers 3, that statement is admittedly agreeable here, even under a much more politically correct landscape for life and movies. The laughs are built on solid situational ideas, while generally being too outrageous to induce discomfort. Perhaps most impressive, it also never feels as if the filmmakers are plunging the toilet while writing this style of humor; it’s funny. The group is aware of how to thread the needle between presenting a potentially offensive scenario and crossing into jokes without actually offending. (One can only assume Jay Chandrasekhar is a pillar for holding that together.)
The reasoning that the wedding is happening in the first place isn’t grounded in reality at all, which helps sell the ridiculousness of Farva finding someone to tie the knot with, period, let alone someone from another ethnic background. This, too, is turned into a joke, as Farva happens to rescue Sarita from a car accident, where she instantly and madly falls in love with her hero. Cue the first of many running gags, as the rest of the titular troopers debate various types of syndromes that must be at play for any woman to be remotely interested in the crude and obnoxious Farva.
Those troopers consist of returning players Foster (Paul Soter), now broken up with Chief of Police Ursula (Marisa Coughlan) and spiraling into an existential crisis as others around him not only begin finding new love, but sizable age-gap potential relationships (causing him to go down an amusing rabbit hole of slang that could be sexual innuendos or nothing). Meanwhile, former rookie Rabbit (Erik Stolhanske) is desperate to feel young again, determined to jump a large pit in one of the assigned vehicles. Brian Cox also pops up every now and then as the retired, cranky, and bored Capt. John O’Hagan, bragging about a girlfriend who may or may not be real, a job now taken over by Todd Markowski (Nat Faxon), who doesn’t get a shred of the respect the former once received (which wasn’t that much to begin with). There is also some new blood here with another rookie, Coy Burns (Andrew Dismukes), enduring familiar hazing rituals, mostly trained in the art of pranks by Mac (Steve Lemme), allowing the film to harken back to past gags (naturally, this area is the weakest, as I’m not sure we needed another “meow” joke).
Appropriately, there is some half-assed, irresponsibly goofy, and needlessly dangerous law enforcement going on here, tied to a mystery involving trucks transporting a new brand of Canadian syrup that are being vandalized. Super Troopers 3 primarily works because its A-plot is doing something different. Thorny’s character embraces the usual stop-the-wedding tropes, filtered through Broken Lizard’s raucous, raunchy, immature comedy. It’s also fair to say that there hasn’t been a theatrical comedy like this since, well, Super Troopers 2, which certainly brought back the camaraderie but lacked in nearly every other aspect. For anyone still fond of these characters, that premise alone is inherently funny and worth a ticket.
Even though the antics start to run out of gas a little over an hour in (this probably doesn’t need to be close to 2 hours), with a mystery that is simultaneously more clever than expected yet can also only go a maximum of two routes, the more action-forward finale is entertaining enough with one impressive practical effect joke prop that receives a lengthy amount of screen time. There is also a slight flaw in Super Troopers 3 in that it fires off jokes and zingers so rapidly that sometimes a bit here or there will be run into the ground, but it’s inducing laughs much more than not. Again, it helps that the lovably crass dynamic of these characters is given a new angle, away from the job, while also leaving time for super-trooping shenanigans.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
