Who wears short-shorts
We wear short-shorts
Theres hot short-shorts
We like short-shorts
Who wears short-shorts
We wear short-shorts

Every moment I saw Tom Lennon, all I could hear was ‘Short Shorts’ by Royal Teens playing in my mind.

By George, the shorts Lennon wore were reminiscent of those Glenn Hughes wore when he and the Village People sang ‘Y.M.C.A.’.

*Shudders*

Anyways, onto Reno 911. I must confess, prior to the viewing, I had never seen or heard anything to do with the Reno 911 TV Series. I believe this was a good thing, as my experience of the movie was a new one. I often find that prejudices of the successful TV show will taint the experience of the movie version.

So, with a bucket of popcorn, a Boags St. George (Thank you Paramount Pictures!) and a skip in my step, I proceeded into the pre-screening of Reno 911: Miami.

Warning: May contain light spoilers.

There are many things to like about mockumentary’s; Satire, sarcasm and stupidity being three of the main elements generally explored in the genre. Reno 911 easily scores full marks in the third column, but does surprisingly well in the first two as well. The film absolutely reeks of Police Academy, which was something that sprang to me almost immediately. If you were to look at the cast of Reno 911 and compare it to Police Academy, you’d very easily draw lines between, say, Deputy S. Jones and Moses Hightower, or Deputy Clementine Johnson and Debbie Callahan, or even Lieutenant Jim Dangle and Carey Mahoney.

Mix this in with the slap to the face they deliver to American crime show Cops, and you can guess the general theme this show is following.

The film starts with a short introduction to the characters, with snippets of them ‘at work’, and small quotes that help to give you a quick understanding of who they are.

I still can’t believe that Lennon’s shorts were so… short.

*Shudders*

It continues to divulge just how incompetent they were at their jobs, and I must admit I laughed hard when they failed to capture a chicken which had wandered onto the road and stopped traffic. The resulting ‘If we all shoot it at the same time, we won’t know who killed it’ was definitely a poignant moment for me; It really captured the gung-ho nature of American society, and their ‘Shoot first, and avoid questions later’ attitude that they have. The fact they couldn’t hit the side of a barn from the inside was pretty amusing as well.

Their general meeting in the morning looks to be something taken directly out of the TV series, and starts the main story for the show – That Reno is invited to the National Police convention in Miami.

I won’t specifically mention what happens on the bus trip, but if there was ever any doubt about Lieutenant Dangles preferences, they’re settled in this scene.

After arriving at the convention to find that their passes have been ‘misplaced’, they book into a local hotel that makes the accommodation of a POW camp look more luxurious and definitely cleaner. A short skit where the camera uses a ‘free flowing’ technique to focus on one character for about 15 – 30 seconds before another walks past and takes the limelight gives a lot of laughs for mine as each ‘stint’ by the characters has them doing some strange – an often disturbing – acts. It was, at times, cringe worthy at just how crazy the scene was, I was already getting the feeling that this type of humour was one of the basis’ for success for the TV series.

Eventually the plot to the story reveals itself to be that the convention is hit by a terrorist attack of poison gas, and that Reno Sheriff’s Department is given charge of the city to keep the peace. A small cameo by The Rock had me chuckling, but I thought the bulk of the humour was found when the show started to really take the piss out of ‘Cops’.

I have to admit, I hate Cops. I think it has to be one of the most irresponsible, mindless, and one-sided pieces of reality television ever. To see a movie that absolutely shits on the shows concept had me laughing for many reasons. I loved the way the writers would set the characters up in ridiculous scenario’s, and the manner in which they played it out has me laughing to myself as I think about it.

One scene shows Deputies Jones and Garcia called to a house for an animal disturbance. They enter the premises to find that an alligator is lurking in the pool. A drunk, white-trashy and very overweight neighbour jumps the fence, and starts abusing the officers about trespassing, and alluding to them being gay.

The drunk nut then jumps in the pool, and starts poking the animal, stating ‘It respect me thas wha ah can touch ‘im’. Both Jones and Garcia have their guns drawn to cover the drunkard and have struck ridiculous poses with their weapons. When they discover the floating alligator is dead, the ALIVE alligator surfaces to take the drunk fool and both Jones and Junior, run off like scared little boys as the victim is screaming for help.
I nearly wet myself.

It was gems like these that I found littered throughout the movie. Another was the group attempting to remove a dead whale from a topless beach, before eventually discovering it was too heavy, and using dynamite to simply blow the thing up.

Possibly my favourite part were the two hostage scenes both Jones and Garcia found themselves in, with the South American drug lord (Who you could never understand), his concubine that snorted about a pound of cocaine in both scenes and his two bodyguards that reminded me of Rocksteady and Beebop from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; And had about the same intelligence.

The two scenes just had me in stitches for the sheer stupidity.

The acting itself within the movie wasn’t too bad to be honest. A few of them were standouts for mind, with Kerry Kenney as Deputy Trudy Wiegal probably my pick for complete ridiculousness. When she asked Lieutenant Dangle ‘Can’t you just give me a pity fuck?’ was just… wrong but at the same time it made me laugh.

Tom Lennon himself was a constant crack up. His line of ‘This is the stupidest group of people I’ve ever worked with who are not legally retarded’ dripped irony, and pretty much summed up the characters of the show.

… Lennon’s shorts were just… so short. So wrong, so very wrong….

This movie, in the end, reminded me a lot of Super Troopers; A show that, if you’re into the kind of humour it presents, will tickle your fancy and make it worth purchasing the DVD. However, if you aren’t a fan of this type of wit i.e. Stupidity, Sarcasm and Satire. Before you see the movie, ask yourself if you liked ‘Drop Dead Gorgeous’; The answer will probably give you a fair indication of whether this movie is for you or not.

3 / 5

Pros
• Takes the piss out of Cops well.
• Some clever skits in there. The golf-cart chase at the end was quite amusing.

Cons
• The humour will either crack you up or not; there is no medium.
• Could be seen as a more modern Police Academy i.e. More of the same, just less politically correct.

Release Date: AUS 17 May 2007
Official Website: http://www.reno911.com.au/