Reno 911!: Miami (2007)
Lt. Jim Dangle: Thomas Lennon
Dep. Travis Junior: Robert Ben Garant
Dep. Trudy Weigel: Kerri Kenney-Silver
Dep. Clementine Johnson: Wendi McLendon-Covey
Dep. Raineesha Williams: Niecy Nash
Dep. S. Jones: Cedric Yarbrough
Dep. James Garcia: Carlos Alazraqui
Dep. Cheresa Kimball: Mary Birdsong
Jeff Spoder: Patton Oswalt
Ethan: Paul Rudd
Terry: Nick Swardson
Aspen Sheriff: David Koechner
20th Century Fox presents a film co-written and directed by Robert Ben Garant, also co-written by Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver.
Running time: 84 minutes.
Rated R for sexual content, nudity, crude humor, language and drug use.
Release Date: February 23, 2007
Review Date: February 28, 2007
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If you are expecting an extended and less TV-friendly version of Comedy Central's sort-of cult-hit Cops parody when entering the theater for Reno 911!: Miami, you've probably hit the nail on the head. While I've only seen one or two episodes of the program in my lifetime, all of the familiar faces are there and I can surmise that the fine men and women of the Reno Sheriff's Department are just too stupid to give you anything else.
You don't need to be a fan of the TV program to be brought up to speed on each member of the Reno Sheriff's Department and just how hideously unqualified these people are at protecting themselves, let alone any innocent civilians they may come across. Lt. Dangle (Lennon) is more concerned with the awkwardly and hilariously placed short-shorts barely covering him than with leading the Deputies that follow. Or even waking them, actually, as he allows Dep. Junior (Garant) to plow into a construction site shortly after waking (on his own) from a wild dream. (In all fairness, the choice between paying attention to the road and dreaming that you're shaving Miss Acapulco is a tough one.)
Of course, every film needs a plot, no matter how paper thin, and it's one that sends them to Miami for a police convention during Spring Break. (Why are they invited? Everybody's invited!) Unfortunately, being invited doesn't keep Dep. Weigel (Kenney-Silver) from screwing up their reservations and landing them at a sleazy, cheap motel with nothing to do and out of the big convention. This allows the film to deeper explore the characters' motivations, all of them failing to sleep with who the other wants to sleep with (and being worse off when succeeding).
Their motivations don't change when our group of eight are suddenly thrust from having nothing to do to being the only cops in town, when the threat of bio-terrorism shuts down the convention and keeps every officer in the city quarantined inside. This is, certainly, where the film is at its most comfortable, as the Reno cops get down to the business of handling, mostly, annoying complaints and house calls - just on the other side of the country. (Which makes me think, who's watching Reno while the whole Sheriff's Dept. is gone? Maybe these guys are so incompetent, the city doesn't even really need it.)
The plot is treated as secondary, but it is what introduces Paul Rudd as a Scarface-knockoff Columbian drug lord who keeps kidnapping Deputies Jones (Yarbrough) and Garcia (Alazraqui) for getting too close to his master plan. What that plan are and how Jones and Garcia are figuring it out is a mystery to all parties, including Jones and Garcia themselves. Our villain's methods of torture are innovative, if nothing else, and, despite the collective greatness of this cast, it is Rudd who steals the biggest and stupidest laughs of the movie.
When I take a moment to reflect on Reno 911!: Miami, I can't say that there is a lot to write home about. I remember laughing a pretty good amount, even if I can't remember what all it was at. You don't need much to find this film enjoyable, just a sense of humor low-brow enough to find something like an action movie star turned S.W.A.T. officer blowing himself up with a hand grenade hilarious.
At any rate, I think the fact that Reno 911!: Miami is the first comedy of the year to actually be, you know, funny, warrants some sort of recommendation.
*** (out of ****)