Reno 911!: Miami

Having not seen the TV series, this was my first exposure to the characters of the "Reno 911!" world. As such, the movie was really amusing to watch. There are some really funny bits (mostly coming from the dialog) along with the insane wackiness of the characters. As a first-time viewer, it was just plain fun to watch.

The movie is basically about a group of Reno police officers who travel to Miami for a police convention. When a quarantine restricts the Miami police force (and all the other officers in the city), the Reno crew must defend the city.

The dumb innocence of the characters coupled with the serious tone that goes along with being police officers is well done. Each character is also well-defined with particular quirks, hangups and issues with the other characters. As a result, the things they say are often nutty and hilarious.

If you've never seen the series, everything in the movie will be fresh and amusing. There are some good laughs here and there and the bizarre, kooky characters will keep you fascinated. For new viewers, it's worth checking out.

I actually enjoy the show and was very unsure about how it could be translated into a movie, so my expectations were not terribly high initially. Then I read one of the reviews on here that said that the movie was much less funny than the show, and overall rather disappointing. After that, my expectations were even lower, so I was pretty much expecting a dud when I went in.

I see what people were saying about it being strange that they tried to shove a plot into what should essentially be series of skits, but contrary to the reviews I've read, I thought it worked just fine. If anything, the cliché terror-attack plot paired with the cliché drug-lord plot were just meant to be a throwaway satire of the kinds of awful plots some franchises have to create in order to be translated into a feature film format ("over-the-top" action "worthy" of the big screen). If anything it just provided for some completely ridiculous scenarios that this viewer found quite entertaining.

As far as the cameos, yeah, they remove you from what shred of "reality" was left in this reality TV parody, but I felt like they worked. For one thing, minus the Rock and Danny DeVito, most of the cameos were not necessarily people everyone is going to recognize. Half the theater was asking "who's that?" when members of Stella showed up, or when someone from Upright Citizen's Brigade was on the screen. But for people who've loved the work of these semi-famous comedians over the years, their presence was a bonus. Not to mention it made the film into an effort by the whole Comedy Central family, which was kind of endearing.

Anyway, going in with low expectations and trying not to take it seriously (it is a comedy, after all), you should have a good time viewing this.

It's easy to tell that Reno 911: Miami is based on a TV series just by watching it. How can you tell? There's maybe 25 minutes or so of solid material, and an additional 60 worth of filler. In bringing the Comedy Central half hour "reality" cop show to the big screen, you get the sense that the filmmakers had a hard time trying to stretch the thing out. The show itself is often quite funny, and the movie works when it's remaining close in spirit to the TV series. But then they have to go and throw in a silly plot and a series of celebrity cameos that take us out of the movie.

The film takes the incompetent cops from the TV series out of Nevada and into Florida, where they have been invited to attend a police convention in Miami. (They only got invited because every police force got in.) They arrive for some fun in the sun, only to discover a bioterrorist act unfolding at the convention center itself, which has trapped every single police officer inside. Since the cops of Reno are the only available officers not inside the building when the situation kicks in, these eight dim-witted enforcers of the law must literally become the entire Miami Police Force, keeping peace in the city while trying to find out who is behind the chemical attack at the convention center. Other subplots include the Reno officers trying to deal with an evil Scarface-like drug lord (Paul Rudd) who keeps on threatening them, and discovering the truth behind a mysterious tattoo of a man's face that has appeared on the breast of one of the female officer's after a night of sex and binge drinking.

When Reno 911: Miami is following the Cops-style reality show format, the movie can be a lot of good fun. The opening scenes where the eight individual officers are introduced, and the scenes where we get to see them on the job and dealing with situations such as a chicken that got loose made me smile and laugh quite a bit. The actors are at ease during these moments, and they're obviously having a lot of fun. Then the whole plot has to kick in, and the movie just doesn't seem as much fun as it did before. Reno 911 has never exactly been about plot, it's always been a series of mostly improvised skits skewering reality cop shows. While the movie does try to hold onto this format, giving us some various misadventures around Florida that have nothing to do with the biochemical plot, they don't seem as fresh or as funny as the Reno scenes early on. A lot of this has to do with the fact that a lot of the gags are either anti-climactic or have no real pay off. That's not to say that there are not some gags that work. A scene where the cops have to remove a beached whale from a topless beach had me laughing quite a bit, and the pay off involving an explosive device is one of the few that actually lives up to its set up and earns its laugh. More often than not, we either find ourselves smiling politely at the effort the actors are making, or simply staring at the screen with casual indifference to what we are seeing.

The movie seems to suffer from an identity crisis, as it doesn't know if it wants to be a series of skits and gross out gags, or if it wants to attempt to try to tell an actual story and parody action movies. It never finds a central tone or target for satire, and seems to change its mind every five minutes. This gives the film an annoyingly disjointed tone from which it never recovers. The celebrity cameos sprinkled throughout also don't work the way that they should, as they take us out of the movie. We're no longer watching a comic "mockumentary" making fun of cop shows, but we're watching a highly paid actor taking a cut on his paycheck for the sake of getting a quick laugh from the audience. I liked the scenes where the Reno cops took center stage, and were being their usual incompetent selves the best. It's fun watching these improvisational comics (many of whom have worked together for years on other TV shows) play off of each other and just be goofy. But Reno 911 wants to keep on reminding us that we're watching a movie, and the good stuff keeps on getting drowned out by uninspired gags or unnecessary plot.

I certainly don't regret seeing Reno 911, and I think fans of the show probably won't either. However, the inconsistent tone and the uneven ratio of hit and miss gags don't leave a positive impression overall. Maybe this would have worked better as a regular half hour episode with all the filler, celebrity cameos and silly plot removed. The cast certainly seems more comfortable with a shorter amount of time to work in. That way, they don't have to compete with a bunch of stuff that shouldn't even be there in the first place.

I'd only seen part of one episode of the TV show before seeing the film, so my knowledge of the characters and the premise of the show was limited. No matter: the film does an excellent job of establishing its tone and the specifics of the characters right off the bat. No roadmap required.

My biggest fear with seeing a theatrical version of a TV series is that the film tries to overinflate the stakes of the plot to justify the increased length and budget and fails. Reno 911!: Miami took that necessity to its logical next step by moving the small town incompetence to a much larger scale in Miami, but due to some clever (and minimalist) writing, the relocation works. And, since nearly all of the humor in the film is derived from the characters and their reactions to their situations -- all of which speed by at a brisk pace, so as to not overmilk a joke -- the relocation never felt forced or unwelcome.

Impressively, the film veers into cliché territory on numerous occasions but never delivers the expected punchline. The actors know their characters so well that their improvisations keep the audience and their costars on their toes at all times. Even the traditional "caper" plot, which is really just an excuse to tie all the vignettes together, is handled with more originality than I would have expected.

Perhaps I should start expecting more from this creative team, since they're capable of sustaining my interest (and my amusement) over the course of a full-length feature. In fact, perhaps I should start watching the series...

If you never watched the show before maybe the movie won't have the same effect on your laughing muscles but if you like me loved the show then you will love this movie as well. Reno 911!: Miami is basically a longer version of an episode of the show. You have to know the characters to fully appreciate this movie. Lieutenant Jim Dangle being my favorite character will always make me laugh out loud. Thomas Lennon Is just phenomenal as this character, but so are all the other characters (deputees Travis Junior, Raineesha Williams, Trudy Wiegel, Clementine Johnson, James Garcia, S. Jones and Cherisha Kimball). The humor is a bit kinky and sometimes absurd but it works for me and for alot of other people too. Too bad this show is not on anymore.