“Reno 911!: Miami”
Rated R
Now playing
** 1/2

THE STORY (OR LACK THEREOF): The squad members from the TV show “Reno 911!” travel to Miami for a police convention, but after being denied admission, they decide to hit the town for a little while.

Then a bioterrorist strikes the convention’s hotel, leaving the inept unit from Nevada as the only police officers able to defend the city.

(Photo: The cast of "Reno 911!: Miami," from left: Kerri Kenney-Silver, Niecy Nash, Carlos Alazraqui, Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant, Mary Birdsong and Wendi McLendon-Covey. Credit: Darren Michaels.)

THE SIDE-STORIES: The movie follows the TV show’s fragmented clip format and branches off into a bunch of subplots. This includes Deputy Clementine Johnson’s (played by McLendon-Covey) search for a lost love whose face she had tattooed on herself, and Deputy Travis Junior’s (played by Garant) efforts to woo various Asian women.

COMEDIC VALUE: The squad’s hilarious adventures partially make up for the absence of a solid, focused plot. The movie continues to mock the crazy personas that form the show’s cast, like gay Lt. Jim Dangle (Lennon) and the mentally unstable Deputy Trudy Wiegel (Kenney-Silver).

The film provides new laughs by poking fun at Florida’s organized crime rings, nude beaches and wild nightlife. One particularly violent, yet funny, scene occurs when a local tries to show the officers how to capture a living alligator.

BEATING A DEAD MANATEE: Even though “Reno 911!” can be funny as a 30-minute TV show, its endless slapstick grows tiring after an hour and a half.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Though it may have little plot or intellectual stimulation, “Reno 911!: Miami” makes for an amusing comedy that, unfortunately, ends up dragging on for too long. But it’s still worth $10.

-- Noveed Safipour, Saratoga High