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Reno 911!: Miami

Written by Jeff Hatline

Friday, 23 February 2007

Title: Reno 911!: Miami
Starring: Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon, Niecy Nash, Mary Birdsong,
Cedric Yarbrough, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Carlos Alazraqui, Wendi McLendon-Covey
Directed By: Robert Ben Garant
Produced By: Robert Ben Garant, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Thomas Lennon
Genre: Comedy, Crime/Gangster and Adaptation
Release Date: February 23rd, 2007
MPAA Rating: R for sexual content, nudity, crude humor, language and drug
use.
Distributors: 20th Century Fox Distribution, Paramount Pictures

The Officers of the Reno Sheriff's Department are at it on the big screen in Reno 911!: Miami. In the film version of the Comedy Central show, the officers are invited to a police convention in Miami Beach. While there, a bio-terror attack on the hotel where the convention is held strands all law enforcement inside the building, leaving the Reno SD as the only officers left to patrol the streets. The movie stars the usual cast of characters. The short-shorts wearing Lt. Jim Dangle (Lennon), who dresses like he does because he has to "be able to move like a cheetah;" the bulletproof vest sporting Deputy Travis Junior (Garant), who wears some pretty funny shirts when the vest is off; oversexed Deputy Clementine Johnson (McLendon-Covey); undersexed Deputy Trudy Weigel (Kenney-Silver) and the rest of the bumbling crew.

I'm a fan of the Comedy Central show, but the disappointing aspect of the movie version is that they don't stick with what was working for them on TV. When the action is being followed around COPS-style or the characters talk directly to the camera in documentary interview fashion, it's funny. But when the movie tries to show what Dangle and the crew are up to while in plain clothes or when an actual plotline is introduced, it's not.

The movie does score a few laughs and the cameos (some expected, some not) are highly entertaining. I don't normally like to give away surprise appearances, but in this case, they are the only reason to see the movie at all. Nick Swardson's Terry does show up on Miami Beach, roller-skates and all, and has the funniest scenes in the movie. Paul Rudd's Scarface impersonating psuedo-drug kingpin scenes will also make you smile, but on the whole, the movie lacks the big laughs. I really wanted to like this movie, but the concept is a lot funnier when it's on TV; so at 80-minutes, they would have been smarter leaving this overlong episode as a two-part cliffhanger season finale or sent it straight to DVD, which is where this movie will make its money anyway.

Grade: C

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