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March 2, 2007 > Arts & Entertainment > Reno 911!: Miami preserves look and feel of TV show

Reno 911!: Miami preserves look and feel of TV show

By Devin Naquin | Thresher staff

Reno 911!: Miami starts with a complete 180 from the trademark mockumentary style of the popular television show. It is a fan’s worst nightmare: In an over-the-top glitzy scene, an extremely dangerous terrorist situation causes the cops of the Reno Sheriff’s Department to be called in to save the day. Suddenly, Deputy Travis Junior (Herbie Fully Loaded’s Robert Ben Garant) awakens from a dream and Reno’s trademark mockumentary-style shaky camera returns, reassuring moviegoers that Reno 911!: Miami makes no extreme departure from the television show.

Reno 911!: Miami is based on Comedy Central’s Reno 911!, a parody of COPS. The movie follows Lieutenant Jim Dangle’s (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’s Thomas Lennon) troupe of incompetent Reno police officers on an ill-prepared trip to the National Law Enforcement Convention in Miami. Upon arrival at the convention, the group is turned away for failure to register and spends the night running amok in the city’s sleaziest clubs and bars. The Reno squad wakes up the next morning only to find that the convention center full of police officers has been the target of a bioterrorist attack. The bungling group is all that is left to protect Miami.

The next hour is just the namesake television show with a facelift — a change of scenery and several often-hilarious cameos from Paul Rudd, Danny DeVito, Paul Reubens and others. The movie’s gags are in line with the original television series and fill the particular niche of inane, unintelligent humor perfectly. Viewers may feel childish for finding such absurdity entertaining, but that will not prevent them from laughing at the ridiculous jokes.

However, the change of scenery does very little — if anything — for the actual content and quality of the comedy. Scenes seem to be largely undifferentiated from their cable television counterparts, giving the movie the feel of a slightly modified feature-length version of the television show. Fans of the television show are sure to be pleased that the central charm of the show is maintained.

A typical animal disturbance call in the film is notable for its perfect fusion of the show’s classic style of humor with new exotic creatures. Deputy S. Jones (Unaccompanied Minors’ Cedric Yarbrough) and Deputy James Garcia (Happy Feet’s Carlos Alazraqui) confidently saunter by a backyard swimming pool and stumble upon an alligator and a self-declared alligator expert. The scene that follows provides the crude and immature humor that serves the audience well time and time again throughout the movie.

Of course, keeping with Hollywood tradition, Dangle’s police squad must slowly and inadvertently save the day once they’ve adjusted to the big screen. It is in this respect that Reno 911!: Miami ultimately becomes the overblown, overproduced big-screen adaptation which plagues so many television shows that hit the big screen. While the mockumentary feel of the Comedy Central original is preserved, the officers of the Reno Sheriff’s Department become the heroes of the day, and heroes they are not. This is a mostly unwelcome intrusion on the light-heartedness of the original series.

Despite its uncharacteristic ending, Reno 911!: Miami largely delivers on its attempt to entertain through crude, immature humor studded with senseless violence and vulgarity.

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