Puddle Cruiser

With each release it's becoming more and more obvious that the uproariously funny modern stoner classic Super Troopers was a bit of a fluke for Jay Chandrasekhar and his Broken Lizard comedy troupe. Those of us who loved that imperfect but often hysterical story of renegade, practical joking state troopers were disappointed with the BL follow up, Club Dread. And Chandrasekhar's efforts on The Dukes of Hazard film were spotty at best (he even had to recycle a Super Troopers gag to get the movie's biggest laugh). It's not surprising, then, that the marketing campaign for Puddle Cruiser bills it as being "from the guys who brought you Super Troopers" and not the other movies. Don't be fooled: though this is not a new movie, it's the one the Broken Lizard troupe made before Super Troopers — in effect their pilot project. It's a routine story of a university student trying to win the girl of his dreams away from the school's rugby star. It's a "talky" affair in the vein of Kevin Smith's Clerks or Richard Linklater's Slacker; in other words it features young smartasses cracking wise, waxing irreverent and using the kind of language that would make a trucker blush. Problem is it's rarely as funny as either of those other movies. The pacing is awful and the gags are recycled from other better movies. The movie never saw wide theatrical distribution with good reason; it's strictly for those interested in tracing the curious and inconsistent career of Broken Lizard. (Fox)