“Reno 911!: Miami” is a ridiculously funny parody of inept cops and the United States.
The haphazard sheriff’s department was great as a half-hour on Comedy Central, and they went a step further in their feature film debut and unleashed a can of comedic whoop a– on the audience. From the very first scene, a dream sequence, to the outtakes after the film, this movie is out-of-control, non-stop laughter.
Similar to “Borat,” “Reno 911!: Miami” employs awkwardness as a central theme in the chaos that is this movie. This awkwardness shows itself throughout the movie as the deputies fail gloriously at each response to a crime. For example, they get called to catch a loose chicken and end up standing in a circle and shooting at the chicken.
The plot has the sheriffs traveling to Miami for a national police convention, getting rejected and, through a twist of fate, taking over Miami’s law enforcement duties. This is where the wheels come off this movie, and in a good way. The officers aren’t ready to patrol a real city, much less a place where crime is rampant: two of the deputies get kidnapped while catcalling women and thrown off a yacht, the same two get threatened by a crime lord with a weed whacker, a beached whale explodes and pretty much every scene with Deputy Weigel, played by Kerri Kenney-Silver, is wildly inappropriate.
This movie is fantastic. The “R” rating gave writers Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver all of the freedom they could possibly want, such as topless beauties and an extended masturbation scene that narrowly avoids being over-the-top.
The movie also has enough plot twists to make it more than just a collection of skits. The deputies eventually bumble their way into solving the big caper and kill the criminal mastermind they planned on bringing to justice.
Overall, the movie hits the mark and produces unequivocal humor that will only get better when a movie channel plays it to death in a year or two.
Paul Katz can be reached at [email protected].
