Reno 911-Miami-Even More Busted Than Ever Ed (2007)

Ultimate DVD
3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he film keeps things moving rapidly wand with enough edge to push the boundaries of the comedy genre....RENO 911: MIAMI certainly delivers 90 minutes of solid laughs." 06/01/2007 p.103

Variety 5 of 10
Fox has reaped nifty little paydays from risque comedies, but the minimal effort expended on this barely-feature-length version of Comedy Central's "Reno 911!" exposes the exercise for what it is -- namely, an opening-weekend pit stop en route to the inevitable unrated DVD release, which will likely do reasonably well. 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...With the series in its fifth season -- chronicling in deadpan, mock cinema verite-style the crime-fighting efforts of Reno's police force -- the producers obviously felt the movie needed a splashier stage, even if the biggest little city in the world is amusingly described near the outset as "like Mayberry, except everyone's on crystal meth and prostitution's legal"...Like any improvised comedy, though, there's a rarely-hit-and-mostly-miss element to the goings-on. It's telling that the obligatory closing-credit sequence displaying additional footage (not outtakes) isn't any better...All of which goes to demonstrate that while it's easy enough to slap a colon on a lowbrow cable TV show, additional punctuation by itself isn't sufficient to actually transform it into a movie. - Brian Lowry
 
ReelViews 6 of 10
Reno 911!: Miami represents an argument against taking 22-minute TV comedy shows and expanding them to 80-minute feature films. Something that entertains over a short period when watched from the vantage point of a couch or a recliner does not necessarily offer a comparably enjoyable experience when expanded and lengthened. It can be done - see South Park and Monty Python for counter-examples - but those are not the norms. 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...Devotees of the TV show, however, will probably not be disappointed...When a joke in Reno 911!: Miami works, it's usually hilarious, and a lot of the funniest moments are on the gross and/or crude side (what some have termed as "college humor"). The problem is that the ratio of successful jokes to running length isn't very good (about one per 10 minutes), and there are a lot of duds strewn along the way. There's something dispiriting about watching a comedy where there are many more misses than hits; maybe it's a result of expecting too much...Reno 911!: Miami is recommended only for die-hard fans of the TV show. - James Berardinelli