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Having been invited to and subsequently denied from a police convention in Miami Beach, the officers of the Reno Sheriff’s Department – flamboyant Lieutenant Jim Dangle (co-writer Thomas Lennon), unstable Deputy Trudy Wiegel (co-writer Kerry Kenney-Silver), Deputy Travis Junior (co-writer/director Robert Ben Garant), promiscuous Deputy Clementine Johnson (Wendi McLendon-Covey), sassy Deputy Raineesha Williams (Niecy Nash), likely lesbian Deputy Cherisha Kimball (Mary Birdsong), and Deputies Garcia and Jones (Carlos Alazraqui and Cedric Yarbrough), who together don’t even merit a single adjective – soon find themselves to be the only police not incapacitated (although thoroughly incompetent) thanks to a biological quarantine at said convention, and sure enough, they’re soon wreaking havoc all over the greater Miami-Dade area.

The obligatory thru-line concerns finding an antidote to the biological agent (although the film itself is only concerned with this come the last reel), with subplots regarding the officers running afoul of either a Tony Montana wannabe (a mostly grating Paul Rudd) or the acting deputy mayor (a mostly whiny Patton Oswalt). Oh, and Clementine finds a tattoo on her breast on a face she doesn’t recognize, basically excusing the need to get an appearance from just about every other member of sketch comedy troupe The State.

However, once hijinks ensue (a given), hilarity often does not. We’ve got car crashes, beached whales, topless women, a veritable marathon of masturbation, and nary a bleep or blur in sight, yet so very little laughs find their way into the mix. The gags are as scattershot as expected, but the strain to not only spark some comedic momentum, but also keep it building has rarely been so apparent. Perhaps after four seasons, the ensemble simply knows its roles too well, to the point where they manage to miss as often as their characters themselves would.

With a length four times longer than an episode and maybe a quarter of the laughs, fans would fare better at home, watching any four "Reno" reruns and maybe even getting around to the laundry. After all, the cameos, curses, and crotch shots should all still be intact by the time this puppy shows up on Comedy Central’s own Secret Stash, snug once more on the small screen.

link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=15564&reviewer=409
originally posted: 02/24/07 02:43:02
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