CALL ON 'RENO: 911!' IF YOU WANT STUPID COMEDY.

Byline: Bob Strauss

Film Critic

'Reno 911!: Miami" continues the Comedy Central TV series' efforts to make like a smarter "Police Academy" knockoff while still remaining stupid in its own distinctive way.

Mission accomplished. Why do it in the first place remains an unanswered question.

The funniest part of the movie is its title. Unfortunately, the "Reno" braintrust -- director Robert Ben Garant and his co-writers Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver -- neither go for the kind of clueless surrealism nor premise-driven lunacy the movie's name should have inspired.

Instead, the film is just a loosely connected set of skits in which incompetent, narcissistic Nevada cops prove just as inept and self-absorbed in Florida.

Along with an occasional, location-appropriate bit (beached whale, "Scarface"-ish villain, golf cart chase). And lots of dumb sex jokes.

The gang is excited to attend a cop convention on Miami Beach, only to find upon arrival that their credentials have been lost and all the really professional police think they're idiots, anyway. But when a bio-weapon quarantines all the other officers, the Reno squad not only has to hunt down the antidote, but maintain law and order in Dade County.

So, naturally, they spend most of their time strutting around in inappropriate swimwear and getting tattooed in the wrong places. When they do respond to calls, they tend to cause more mayhem than they prevent. And perhaps due to budget limitations -- "Miami" looks like a basic- cable show -- South Florida politely refuses to descend into interesting and logical chaos despite the gaping authority gap.

Lennon's Lt. Jim Dangle, force Reno's hotpants-sporting leader, is a shrewd comic creation, dedicated to policing but not about to let that interfere with having a gay old time. Or vice versa, if you want to use the word vice.

Anyway, he aspires to doing a good job, and will go the extra mile to inspire his bungling underlings, too; he'll even attempt a hetero encounter with lovelorn Deputy Trudy (Kenney-Silver) if it'll help her deflated morale. Of course, his efforts have the opposite effect, but that's what's funny.

When it's not dirty, "Reno's" humor is pretty scattershot. Every squad member has his or her one-note comic quirk, and perhaps in recognition of how quickly that gets old, there are surprise guest appearances ("stars" is too grand a word for the cameo-makers) at strategic junctures.

The overall effect is mildly amusing, unthreateningly naughty and only subversive if you've never seen a Keystone Kops reel.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

[e-mail]

RENO 911!: MIAMI - Two and one half stars

(R: sex, nudity, violence, language, drug use)

Starring: Carlos Alazraqui, Mary Birdsong, Robert Ben Garant, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Thomas Lennon, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Niecy Nash, Cedric Yarbrough.

Director: Robert Ben Garant.

Running time: 1 hr. 24 min.

Playing: In wide release.

In a nutshell: The incompetent cops from Comedy Central tear up the beach in this episodic stupid-fest. Funny in spurts; a stronger plotline might have led to more laughs.

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

Nevada sheriffs are one for all and all for one as they prepare to rid a Florida city of criminal activity in "Reno 911!: Miami."