Twenty-five years after five fake Vermont state troopers turned highway patrol into an elaborate prank show, Broken Lizard is back in uniform. “Super Troopers 3,” officially subtitled “Farva’s Wedding,” opened in theaters August 7 under returning director Jay Chandrasekhar — and critics seem largely agreed on one thing: this is a movie made entirely for people who already know exactly what they’re getting.
The Setup
The plot, per Rotten Tomatoes’ official synopsis, centers on Rod Farva’s wildly over-the-top engagement to Thorny’s sister, which spirals into chaos as the Super Troopers try to navigate Thorny’s scheming to sabotage the relationship — all while working to take down a new drug ring on the side. GSNSP describes the film’s opening as a genuine swing: a massive, colorful Bollywood-style dance number that turns out to be the announcement of Farva’s engagement, rather than a random gag disconnected from the plot.
That wedding-centric structure is, by most critical accounts, both the film’s engine and its biggest liability. Variety’s review notes dryly that leaning on standard wedding-farce plotting, somewhat awkwardly grafted onto the franchise’s usual cop antics, suggests the writers were running short on fresher ideas.
The Gang, Two and a Half Decades Later
Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske all return as the core Broken Lizard troupe, joined again by Brian Cox and Marisa Coughlan from earlier films. New additions to the cast include Chace Crawford, Nat Faxon, Andrew Dismukes, Hannah Simone, Iqbal Theba, Sakina Jaffrey, Jon Rudnitsky and Lisa Gilroy.
RogerEbert.com’s review leans into the age of it all, noting that most of the characters introduced in the original 2001 film are now pushing 60 — the exception being Cox’s Captain O’Hagan, technically retired but still hanging around the station so often that another character jokes they should just install a bed for him in the basement. That review frames the film as a “played-out” way to keep a comedy franchise alive, while conceding it’s executed with enough energy that the runtime moves quickly regardless.
What Critics Are Saying
The overall critical reception has landed somewhere between lukewarm and outright negative. Just Jared’s roundup of early notices frames the response as largely unfavorable, citing the Sydney Morning Herald’s 2.5-out-of-5 grade and its description of the film as having nothing remotely artful about it, while still capturing something close to the loose, drive-in-comedy energy of an earlier era of moviemaking.
Variety’s review is the sharpest of the bunch, arguing the sequel lacks the nostalgia advantage that carried 2018’s crowdfunded “Super Troopers 2” and suggesting even longtime fans of the franchise might come away shrugging this time. That film, worth remembering, was famously funded through nearly $5 million in crowdfunding after studios doubted there was still an audience for a belated sequel to the 2001 original — a backstory Variety references as part of why “Super Troopers 2” got more goodwill than this follow-up seems likely to earn.
Not every reaction has been so cold. On Letterboxd, audience reviews skew considerably warmer than the critical consensus, with several viewers calling it a clear improvement over the second film and singling out Heffernan’s Farva as the film’s MVP. One review flags the film’s wedding-plot device as something that actually works better than expected, while another jokes that staying this committed to being “aggressively stupid” for a quarter-century deserves some kind of salute.
Does the Humor Still Land?
GSNSP’s review poses the question directly: does Broken Lizard’s brand of raunchy, deliberately un-PC comedy hold up in 2026? Its answer is qualified. The film leans hard into ethnic wedding tropes, Canadian stereotypes and old-fashioned slapstick, and some of it plays dated — but the review credits the troupe’s evident affection for each other and their own material for keeping things from tipping into anything mean-spirited, since Broken Lizard is, in that review’s words, mocking everyone equally, including themselves.
That review also notes the production has gotten more polished with time: slicker visuals, higher-profile guest stars, but a structure that occasionally feels more like an extended sitcom episode stretched to feature length than a tightly plotted film.
The Bottom Line
“Super Troopers 3” may struggle to attract viewers who weren’t already fans of the franchise, while even longtime followers could find the latest installment less entertaining than anticipated, according to Variety.. But for the audience it’s actually built for — people who’ve been quoting “meow” jokes for twenty-five years — there’s enough of the old chaotic energy here to make the trip back to the highway worthwhile, even if the destination is more familiar than fresh.
“Super Troopers 3” is currently in theaters through Searchlight Pictures, with a runtime of approximately 104 minutes.
