Reno 911!: Miami 2007

Michael Esposito, Chicago Tribune: Comedy Central's Reno 911! -- a spoof of the police ride-along show Cops -- takes a shot at stretching the concept into a feature-length film. Unusual for this misfit crew, the shot pretty much hits its intended target. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This is mostly a listless hodgepodge of half-improvised whatever, the seven lead characters so flatly conceived they're like the Keystone Kops (without the chops). Read more

Ted Fry, Seattle Times: It's a pure delight that the show's genius performance troupe has assembled one of the highest-concept, lowest-brow, most uproarious movie debuts since the surprise sensation of last year's cable crossover Borat. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: While the characters are funny in Reno 911!: Miami, they really could use a straight man, or at least someone who isn't totally incompetent. There are plenty of Bob Goldthwaits in the cast, but no Steve Guttenberg. Read more

Daniel Gray Longino, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The movie cleverly pokes fun at action-movie cliches. It has the wild chase scenes and the totally unnecessary plot twists, yet the characters are anything but the super-cool-under-pressure cop-movie archetypes. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Broken up into four episodes of the television show, who knows, this might be a masterpiece. Seen at one sitting, it falls well short of that. Not for lack of trying. More for trying a little too hard. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: This low-rent, nonsense cop business filled me with a nostalgic twinge. I didn't know I wanted the Police Academy series resurrected with a lot more hilarity, but I'm glad somebody did it. Read more

Alex Chun, Los Angeles Times: Aside from uncensored profanity and unpixelated nudity, the Reno 911!: Miami never really stretches its legs, and instead often feels more like a stretched-out half-hour episode. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: If you like the TV show, you'll like the movie. If you like stupid movies you'll like the movie. If you want to have your soul elevated, look elsewhere. Read more

Scott Brown, Entertainment Weekly: The characters are perfectly evolved screwups and the premise (every legit cop is quarantined at a police convention, leaving our heroes in charge of Miami) has potential. It lacks only the discipline of a 30-minute episode. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Reno 911!: Miami starts to wear out its welcome right around the 30-minute mark. Had it been made as a two-part episode of the series, with a week in between for our memories to lapse, we might not have noticed this is just more of the same. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: While you may laugh here and there, if you wait for the DVD you can skip the slow sections for the high points. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: A formulaic, unfunny farce that will leave you nostalgic for Police Academy. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: The gags vary -- a tattooed-breast mystery kinda sags -- but there are lots of laughs. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Reno does manage a titter here and a giggle there. But it's a cheap, dumb, obvious movie. How cheap? The big screen never seemed so small. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: As a TV show, Reno 911! is diverting and amusing; as a motion picture, it's overlong and wears out its welcome. The film offers some solid laughs, but not enough to justify sitting through 80 minutes of the faux cops' antics. Read more

Bill Zwecker, Chicago Sun-Times: For the most part, this movie feels like a just-missed effort. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The actors behind this show are far more talented than this movie suggests -- many of their funniest quirks haven't made the final cut -- and there's no excuse beyond simple quick-buck greed for such a sloppy effort. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: A veritA (C) riff on the a~Police Academya(TM) series is the idea behind cult US sitcom a~Reno 911!a(TM), which, here, is stretched to breaking point for this puerile punt at cinematic glory. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Time Out: Handcuffed by an annoyingly contrived plot that keeps its zanier non sequitur TV giggles in lockdown. Read more

Brian Lowry, Variety: Running a mere 80 minutes and somehow still feeling heavily padded, this Cops spoof yields a few amusing (if widely spaced) moments but otherwise simply revels in the gratuitous nudity, language and below-the-belt gags that an "R" rating provides. Read more

Brian Miller, Village Voice: The TV show excels with its short squad-car bursts of random inanity; here, the plot -- stretched out to 84 minutes -- feels like a dime bag tossed aside by a fleeing perp. Read more

Dan Zak, Washington Post: Reno 911!: Miami will suffice for fans hungry for new material and tired of waiting for the show's fourth season to end or the fifth to start. Read more