by Joe Buffaloe
Daily Lobo
Can a minor cult hit on Comedy Central be made into a good movie?
The answer is yes, if you like the show already, and an unenthusiastic maybe if you're new to it.
"Reno 911!," a spoof of reality shows like "Cops," has had a surprisingly long run on Comedy Central. It has consistently remained a decent, if not great, show, always one evolutionary step away from a truly original, memorable comedy. Where most shows would be completely tasteless, there's an intelligence and wit behind "Reno 911!" that keeps it afloat.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The film adaptation, "Reno 911!: Miami," steps it up a little from the show - its R rating is enough to show that - but it doesn't push the boundaries enough and doesn't put the opportunities of cinema to creative enough use. That's a tricky thing about making a movie from a show. On one hand, you have to
preserve what makes the show fun and gives it character, but on the other hand, you have to give people more than three episodes strung together on a movie screen. The film has to stand on its own and be funny on its own terms.
One show that pulled off the transition to cinema nearly perfectly was another product of Comedy Central: "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut." The film never could have worked as an episode - it went everywhere the show couldn't and marked the beginning of the series's most creative period.
"Reno 911!: Miami" is mainly successful in bringing what makes the show funny to the screen. The relationships between members of the Reno Sheriff's Department are central to the story, each character with his or her own idiotic, delusional and neurotic tendencies. As Lt. Dangle said near the end of the movie, they're the stupidest group of people he has ever seen. The irony, of course, is that he's the one in the short shorts who just shot himself in the foot with a flair gun.
Mercifully, the gratuitous inclusion of bit characters from the show is limited to one, the homosexual, crack-addicted prostitute Terry, who just happens to show up in Miami. The movie gets away with this, thanks to its own self-consciousness - the filmmakers probably aren't worried about Oscars, and rules of plausible fiction are for the most part ignored. Also, the character is integral to a key plot twist at
the end.
Setting the cast in Miami, away from the show's original turf, makes the film lose some of its Nevada charm - as one officer said early in the movie, Reno is a lot like his hometown in the South, except everybody's on crystal meth, and prostitution is legal - but the displacement of the characters leads to some funny material. Whether it be a hotel where the owner accuses every tenant of coming for a "suck fest," or Paul Rudd as a Cuban drug lord who repeatedly kidnaps police at gun point, the Reno crew still takes glee wallowing in the lowest dregs of American society.
There are plenty of R-rated bonuses scattered throughout the movie. If you think anyone is safe from explosions and gun accidents - even the Rock - they're not. Even the generous dose of gratuitous nudity always yields funny results.
The film has moments of craziness that, if they were sustained or expanded, could have made it more memorable. Though most of its humor stems from staying unpredictable, it doesn't depart enough from the Hollywood formula to be an important movie. Solid performances and consistent laughs hold the film together, but I'd hold out to see it at the dollar theater.
"Reno 911!: Miami"
Grade: B
