Trailer Park Boys creator Mike Clattenburg insists Don’t Legalize It will be the final feature-length film based on the long running Canadian cult TV series and with good reason; the boys are starting to show their age. This latest installment picks up soon after Julian (Tremblay) has been released from jail as he devises yet another half-baked, get-rich-quick scheme. Meanwhile, the federal government’s plan to legalize marijuana is threatening Ricky’s (Wells) illegal pot growing business. The other regulars manage to surface as well with Bubbles (Mike Smith) still providing a majority of the laughs thanks to his childlike demeanor and trailer park supervisor/nemesis Jim Lahey (John Dunsworth), who is given an unwelcome darker edge this time around. Many of the movie’s jokes hit the mark but the laughs are largely superficial, providing a kind of strange deja-vu sensation, as if we remember chuckling at the same gags years ago. The already thin plot is stretched to extreme lengths in order to justify the runtime, making for a severely sagging middle section. In fact, the comedic energy only finds momentum in the film’s third act. A genuinely memorable sequence, shot during the annual 4/20 rally on Parliament Hill, depicting Ricky in a hilarious filibustering scene with a cameo from real life pot activist Jodie Emery, works extremely well. Unfortunately, these effective bits are few and far between the severe padding. It’s as if we’ve been duped into one long promotional campaign for the next two revival seasons, which were recently announced.
