Common Sense Media Review
Sex and drug jokes abound in lowbrow comedy.
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Why Age 17+?
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Super Troopers
Parent and Kid Reviews
Based on 5 parent reviews
Based on 11 kid reviews
Kids say this movie is a hilarious comedy that, while entertaining, is definitely not suitable for younger audiences due to its explicit content including nudity, drug use, and foul language. While some appreciate its unique humor and cult classic status, others criticize it for relying on overused comedy tropes and lacking positive role models.
- humorous content
- explicit themes
- not for kids
- cult classic
- mixed reviews
Summarized with AI
Summarized with AI
What's the Story?
SUPER TROOPERS feels like the kind of movie five college buddies who didn't want to go to law school would dream up after a week-long marathon of smoking dope and watching John Landis movies. In fact, that's pretty much how it came about. Five recent Colgate graduates who created a comedy group called Broken Lizard wrote and star in it and one of them directed it. The result is a sort of Animal House crossed with Cheech and Chong with a touch of the '70s Erik Estrada television show CHiPs. It's a slob comedy story of the rivalry between a group of Vermont highway patrolmen and the local police. It escalates from taunts and practical jokes to a struggle over turf and then to a struggle for survival. The members of Broken Lizard play the troopers, whose idea of "cheeky" hijinks includes making bets about how many times one of them can use the word "meow" while giving a motorist a speeding ticket, or donning a hippie wig and racing the other troupers to the Canadian border. In classic college fashion, drugs, alcohol, humiliation, and sex provide most of the subjects for humor.
Is It Any Good?
This is in the middle range for bad-taste comedies, in terms of both bad taste and comedy. There are a lot of gross jokes that are cheerfully politically incorrect but not as offensive as some of what is out there. They are not as stupid as some of what we've seen in recent movies, but they are not terrifically funny, either. Super Troopers falls somewhere between American Pie and Tom Green.
No one in Broken Lizard has what anyone might deem star quality -- in those uniforms, they look more like they are auditioning for a local franchise for the Village People than like anyone who might know how to hold a radar gun on a speeding 18-wheeler. But director Jay Chandrasekhar and one or two of the others clearly have fun on screen and it occasionally reaches the audience.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the humor in Super Troopers. Is it funny to see authority figures behaving like total fools? Why or why not?
What other movies can you think of that make fun of authority figures?
Were there any moments when the humor seemed too extreme? If so, which moments, and why?
Movie Details
- In theaters : February 15, 2002
- On DVD or streaming : August 6, 2002
- Cast : Erik Stolhanske , Jay Chandrasekhar , Steve Lemme
- Director : Jay Chandrasekhar
- Inclusion Information : Indian/South Asian Movie Director(s) , Indigenous Movie Actor(s) , Indian/South Asian Movie Actor(s) , Latino Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Twentieth Century Fox
- Genre : Comedy
- Run time : 100 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : language, sexual content and drug use
- Last updated : October 9, 2025
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