Eagles of Death Metal

MOVIE REVIEW: Super Troopers 2 (2018)

Super Troopers 2 delights but is destined to become just another cult film

SUPER TROOPERS 2 (2018 Broken Lizard)

Directed by:  Jay Chandrasekhar

It took 17 years and a crowdfunding campaign, but we now live in a world where a sequel to Super Troopers (2001) exists!  Judging by the mostly empty theatre on Saturday afternoon, Super Troopers 2 looks to become…another cult film.  Which is a shame really, because these beloved screwup cops are adored for a reason.  And that reason is Rod Farva.

Fear not Farva fans, for your favourite character played by Kevin Heffernan is again the butt of everyone’s pranks.  Thorny, Foster, Mac, Rabbit (still the rookie!) and Captain O’Hagen are reunited once again by Governor Jessman (Lynda Carter), who insists it’s the entire original team.  That means they’re stuck with Rod Farva like deja-vu.  Maybe they can stick him with the radio.

You see, only Vermont’s favourite cops can handle this job.  It turns out a big chunk of Canada near the border was surveyed wrong.  It actually belongs to the United States, and custody is about to be handed over.  The local Mounties will be replaced by US cops.  And that’s our gang.  How d’you think that’s gonna go over in Canada, eh?  Will we still be allowed to listen to Rush?

Mayor Guy LeFranc (Rob Lowe) is an ex-hockey enforcer known as the “Halifax Explosion”.  (Fun fact:  in real life, actor Rob Lowe is “obsessed” with the historical Halifax explosion of 1917.)  He seems friendly, but the locals and Mounties take an instant dislike to the US cops.  (Will Sasso, who really is Canadian, plays the funniest of the three Mounties.  Brampton’s Tyler Labine plays another.)  As you can imagine the drama unfolds against a backdrop of US and Canadian stereotypes.  Guns and “MAGA” vs. beer and “Eh”.

Our favourite cops find a hidden stash of drugs on abandoned property.  Sending them to a lab for testing would take two weeks, so of course they sample the drugs themselves to identify them.  This is how Thorny played by Jay Chandrasekhar becomes addicted to a hormone product called “Flova Scotia”.

Fans won’t want any more spoiled.  There are cameos too, so don’t look at the Wikipedia page and just wait to be surprised.  It was pleasant to see Marisa Coughlan (Chief Ursulu Hanson) and Lynda Carter back from the original film.  Brian Cox (Captain O’Hagen) is a serious Scottish actor of impeccable reputation (the Royal Shakespeare Company for example), and the fact that he came back for Super Troopers 2 must mean he’s a good shit.

Original music was performed by Eagles of Death Metal.  Give them credit for a good soundtrack, including a cover of “Blinded by the Light”.

Super Troopers 2 follows the formula of the first, meaning the plot doesn’t matter because you’re just waiting for the next prank.  Honestly though, this drug smuggling plot is an original one that has probably never been done before.  Expect some jokes from the original to be sequel-ed.  Liters of cola, “meow”…just go see it.

Super Troopers 2 is playing now at a theatre near you.

3.5/5 stars

Super Troopers are:

  • Jay Chandrasekhar as Senior Trooper Arcot “Thorny” Ramathorn
  • Paul Soter as Trooper Jeff Foster
  • Steve Lemme as Trooper MacIntyre “Mac” Womack
  • Erik Stolhanske as Trooper Robert “Rabbit” Roto
  • Kevin Heffernan as Trooper Rodney “Rod” Farva
  • and Kevin Heffernan as Captain John O’Hagen

Soundtrack album tracklisting:

1. Tooth Fairy – Super Troopers 2 Cast
2. Blinded By the Light – Eagles of Death Metal
3. Got the Power – Eagles of Death Metal
4. Litre of Cola – Super Troopers 2 Cast
5. Saturday Night Blues – Natural Child
6. Caulk – Super Troopers 2 Cast
7. Shit Makes the Flowers Grow – Folk Uke
8. Penal Colony – Dog Trumpet
9. Fruit Gum – Super Troopers 2 Cast
10. Big Bear – Steak
11. Easy Eating – Naked Giants
12. Fuck a Moose – Super Troopers 2 Cast
13. Shasta Beast – Eagles of Death Metal
14. French Excerpt – Super Troopers 2 Cast
15. Baby, I Won’t Do You No Harm – The Sheepdogs
16. 80Kmh – Super Troopers 2 Cast
17. If You Ain’t Got the Money – Who Are Those Guys
18. Lyin’ – Charlie Patton’s War
19. Complexity – Eagles of Death Metal
20. All My Friends – Blackout Party
21. Secret Plans – Eagles of Death Metal
22. Wham – Super Troopers 2 Cast

#449: Paris

PARIS

Paris

The world in general, but Paris specifically, was shaken again by heinous terror on Friday November 13, 2015.  In the misguided name of religion, an apocalyptic cult that we call ISIS or ISIL have attacked the good people of France once more.  But they were surprised by the resilience of the French populace, and by the love of the entire world.

Still shaking, we all still struggle to make sense of these attacks.  The loss of innocent lives, the radical cult with the twisted concept of good and evil and the desire to bring about the “final battle with Rome”, and the fear of what may come next.  We have all spent time thinking about such things.

For some like myself, this attack has crossed a blurry line.  For the first time ever, our precious music was a target.  Josh Homme’s Eagles of Death Metal were playing to a crowd of 1500 people at the Bataclan concert hall.  Little did Homme, or the gleeful concert goers realize, but ISIS had declared their gathering to be one of “pagans”:

“The targets included the Bataclan theatre for exhibitions, where hundreds of pagans gathered for a concert of prostitution and vice.” – official statement from ISIS.

Then, gunmen broke into the venue and executed 89 music fans, including some in wheelchairs.  In the eyes of the terrorists, rock fans are all evil unbelievers, beyond redemption.  To the rest of the sane world, they were simply 1500 people in the wrong place at the wrong time, punished for nothing, lives ended for nothing.  It makes no sense.

Then, we all woke up the next morning.  Bombs fell on Raqqa in Syria, in the name of Paris.  For some, life goes on.  For others, they must now carry on without their loved ones.

Without taking any focus away from where it should be (the innocent), this terror attack feels different than any other in memory.  Rock music used to be a place we could go to escape.   While gun violence (Dimebag) and mass tragedy (the Station House fire) are sadly nothing new at a rock concert, this is the first time rock fans have been specifically targeted by terrorists for the music we like — apparently “prostitution and vice”.  We were already probably all targets anyway, for being the wrong religion, or sexual orientation, or just for holding the wrong beliefs.  Now, 89 of us have been slaughtered, including Nick Alexander, a well-liked merchandise manager for the Eagles of Death Metal, for being at a rock concert.  My friend Mike, who does the same job with Steve Earle, left Paris only hours before the attacks.

Sure, millionaires like Bono have always been trying to get music involved in world affairs.  Music has raised money for the poor and starving, it has raised awareness for a multitude of issues, but ultimately it was really just an escape from the world.  People do not attend a U2 concert to learn how to change the planet.  You can learn that much more affordably by buying a book.  People go to see U2 to witness the light show, the music, and ultimately escape from the outside world for two or three hours.  That’s all it is in the long run, and now that sanctuary has been shattered for some.

Music will still be an escape for most of us.  Most will not let this one attack change our lives, but it feels like a new battle line has been drawn.  Now even we the rock fans, usually under society’s radar, have been attacked and killed.  Expect this to draw us together, not tear us apart.  Unlike the merciless fiends who did this, those hurt will draw strength from the love of the entire world.

Cut us, do we not bleed?  Yes, we do.  We will not stop resisting evil in this world, but now that rock fans are among the specifically calculated dead, it feels different to me.  This time, it feels personal.  ISIS have killed again, but they have also failed again.  The world is stronger than they are.  Love defeats hate.