Super Troopers 3 (2026) Review: Familiar Mischief Still Has a Few Miles Left

Twenty-five years after their first patrol, the Vermont state troopers are still treating public service as an excuse for private amusement. Super Troopers 3 arrives with the confidence of a reunion among old friends: undisciplined, proudly juvenile and sometimes far funnier than its shambling construction has any right to be.

Scruffy, shameless and fuelled by genuine friendship, this third patrol proves Broken Lizard still knows how to turn stupidity into an art form.

Movie at a glance

The old gang takes another patrol

Super Troopers 3 does not attempt to modernise Broken Lizard into something tidier or more respectable. Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske return with their comic identities intact, leaning into the pleasure of watching a group with decades of shared rhythm interrupt, provoke and undermine one another.

That chemistry remains the film’s most persuasive special effect. The jokes may vary wildly in quality, but the troupe’s timing gives even the weaker exchanges an easy, lived-in momentum. Their characters still behave like colleagues who have spent far too long encouraging each other’s worst instincts, and the affectionate irritation beneath the insults supplies a warmth the screenplay rarely states directly.

Farva, Thorny and a wedding from hell

The central comic complication is exactly the kind of personal disaster this series understands: Farva becomes engaged to Thorny’s sister, Sarita, and Thorny responds by trying to sabotage the relationship. The impending Indian wedding gives the film a colourful framework for embarrassment, rivalry and increasingly desperate interference, while a drug-smuggling investigation provides the loose police plot running alongside it.

Kevin Heffernan once again commits to Farva with magnificent absence of shame. He plays every social miscalculation as if it were a heroic stand, making the character exhausting and strangely indispensable. Chandrasekhar works well as his increasingly appalled opponent, and their conflict gives the film a more personal engine than a simple collection of traffic-stop sketches.

Brian Cox supplies the gravitas

Brian Cox remains the perfect straight-faced authority figure for this world. Captain O’Hagan’s struggle with retirement adds a faint note of age and impermanence beneath the nonsense, while Cox’s absolute seriousness makes everyone around him appear even more ridiculous. He never seems to be asking the audience for a laugh, which is precisely why his presence remains so effective.

The returning ensemble is joined by performers including Hannah Simone, Nat Faxon, Chace Crawford and Andrew Dismukes. The newcomers bring useful changes in energy, though this is unmistakably still Broken Lizard’s road. Supporting characters are most successful when they bounce off the established troupe rather than compete with it for control of the film.

A proudly uneven comedy

The film’s greatest strength is also its limitation: it behaves like a long night with friends who find one another funnier than anyone else does. When the comic rhythm lands, the looseness feels generous and infectious. A throwaway reaction, a needlessly prolonged argument or Farva’s monumental self-belief can suddenly produce the kind of laughter that a more polished studio comedy might edit away.

When the rhythm fails, however, the 104-minute running time begins to show. Several gags are pushed beyond their natural ending, and the wedding story, police investigation and parade of crude set-pieces do not always pull in the same direction. The film is more interested in extending a bit than tightening a narrative, which will delight committed fans and test anyone who has never acquired the Broken Lizard frequency.

Direction and cinematic craft

Chandrasekhar directs with functional clarity, keeping the ensemble visible and allowing jokes to develop through reactions rather than frantic cutting. The car chases and confrontations bring short bursts of action, but the filmmaking sensibly treats spectacle as support for the comedy instead of pretending this modest world needs blockbuster scale.

The visual design embraces the uniforms, roads, wedding colours and absurd promotional imagery that define the film’s collision of small-town policing and outsized fantasy. Editing is strongest when it trusts the troupe’s timing; it is less assured when the plot needs to move briskly between its crime and relationship threads. The score and sound design maintain comic momentum without overwhelming the performances.

Who is this third film for?

Super Troopers 3 is built for viewers who already understand that elegance has never been the point. It offers no apology for its rude humour, drug jokes, sexual material or wilfully foolish characters. That stubbornness can feel refreshing in an era when theatrical comedy is often smoothed into anonymous content, even while it leaves the film resistant to anyone outside the existing cult.

There is something genuinely appealing about watching a comedy troupe return not because the characters demand mythology, but because the performers still enjoy sharing the same frame. The result is not the sharpest film in the series, yet it has enough unruly personality to avoid becoming a purely mechanical nostalgia exercise.

Where the patrol loses speed

The screenplay’s stop-start structure prevents the film from building the cumulative comic pressure of the original. Some material leans too heavily on provocation without finding a sufficiently surprising payoff, while the drug-ring plot often feels like the necessary paperwork between the more entertaining character collisions.

The film also asks affection for the troupe to bridge moments that would benefit from firmer editing. Fans may happily make that leap; newcomers are likely to see an amiable but patchy collection of sketches. A leaner cut and a more decisive final stretch could have transformed a pleasant reunion into a genuinely inspired comeback.

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Your verdict

Did Super Troopers 3 give the Broken Lizard gang another comedy worth pulling over for? Share your rating and favourite spoiler-free moment in the comments.