A feature length version of the Comedy Central TV show. And, obeying a law that stretches back at least to the dawn of TV comedy, the format goes on holiday. To Miami, as the title suggests, where Reno’s precinct of variously useless cops suddenly find themselves the only police in town with a drug lord to contain called Ethan the Drug Lord (played by Paul Rudd) and day-to-day policing duties to carry out. Obeying another law, there’s the odd guest cameo – Danny DeVito in this case (his Jersey Films outfit are bankrolling the movie so it makes sense). But who cares about guests or the plot – no one involved seems to – this is essentially a lightly mock-doc’d version of Police Academy, with one sketch sequence tacked any old how onto the next. Some do work better than others – there’s a synchronised masturbation/sex symphony gag which must have been fiendishly difficult to co-ordinate, plus an extended joke about an exploding whale on the beach which is actually a joke about how women with preposterously perfect breasts are used in low grade comedies of this nature. That’s probably called having your cake and eating it too. Obviously there are no “cool” points to be won for admitting you like this sort of sex-obsessed, childish, largely improvised sort of comedy. But, hands up, it is funny.
Reno 911! Miami – at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2007