Reno 911! : Miami

Reno 911! : Miami

Reno’s Finest Jump To The Big Screen

There’s a hostage crisis going on and the Chief of Police (Lennie Loftin) has summoned the finest police officers. From out of nowhere a helicopter lands and out jump Reno’s team of deputies: Garcia (Carlos Alazraqui), Clementine Johnson (Wendi McLendon-Covey), Jones (Cedric Yarbrough), Junior (Ben Garant), Kimball (Mary Birdsong), Wiegel (Kerri Kenney-Silver) and Raineesha Williams (Niecy Nash). They’re soon accompanied by Lieutenant Dangle (Thomas Lennon) who arrives via a spectacular motorcycle stunt that goes wrong on the landing. Is this actually the Reno Sheriff’s Department?

No. It’s actually a dream that Junior is having while he’s driving the squad car down the road. After a look at a day in the life of the deputies (which includes the entire team subduing a chicken that’s loose on the road), the announcement is made that they’ve been invited to a police convention in Miami (not because of their superior skills, but mainly because every department has been invited).

After arriving to Miami via bus, the team is not allowed to be apart of the convention due to their credentials/passes can’t be located for the conference. The down hearted team then find themselves at a rundown hotel for the night. However, things change the next day when they arrive at the convention center again only to find out that the entire facility and everyone in it are quarantined due to a terrorist/biohazard attack. This means that the eight members of the Reno Sheriff’s Department are the only law enforcement left in the city of Miami.

The team has their hands full with not only working the city’s 9-1-1 system (which at one point gets unplugged) but also handling a variety of calls that includes an alligator in a pool, a whale that’s washed up on the beach and a call to Suge Knight’s residence because of the noise. In the meantime Jones and Garcia are constantly being kidnapped by Ethan (Paul Rudd) who happens to be a drug dealer in Miami who is convinced that the police officers are hot on his trail. Will the Reno Sheriff’s department be able to secure the city, find out who’s the mastermind behind the biohazard/terrorist attack and save the people inside the convention center? More importantly, will the team be able to survive each other? You’ll have to watch “Reno 911! : Miami” to find out.

It was fun to see the hit show from TV’s Comedy Central make it to the big screen. There were quite a few things that I liked about the movie. The cast played really well off of each other, just like they do on the TV show which made for some exceptionally funny moments such as the scenes at the hotel and another when Wiegel takes the top off a canister from the convention center crime scene which results in the entire department having to get hosed down by a hazmat crew.

There was also plenty of appearances in the movie by those who have been on the show before as well as a few fresh faces. Danny DeVito makes an appearance as the District Attorney in the dream sequence at the beginning. The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) shows up for a few moments as something of a commando type and David Koechner is also in a few scenes as the Sheriff of Aspen. Besides Paul Rudd (whose character is much different than the lamas coach he usually portrays), Michael Ian Black, Dave Holmes, Patton Oswald, Paul Reubens and Mindy Sterling are all familiar faces. And, yes, Terry (Nick Swardson), the guy on roller skates they’re always arresting, makes an appearance as well.

I was torn about one aspect of the movie. “Reno 911!” is filmed similar to an episode of “Cops” but it seemed like the movie, in some parts, got away from that. However, I did like the fact that, unlike the show, you could hear every word they were saying, with nothing being “bleeped” out. This made some scenes, like every time they would pull the squad cars out and crash, even funnier.

The only down side to the movie was the length of the film. At just under 85 minutes, the movie is shorter than most animated features that are being released. Maybe a little more time could have helped to fan out the plot and especially the characters of Ethan and Jeff Spoder (Oswald).

Fans of the TV show will find plenty to laugh at in “Reno 911!: Miami”. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll want to wear police issued shorts with cowboy boots!

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