Puddle Cruiser (1996)

42% of users liked it
(4,207 ratings)

Grogan (Kevin Heffernan) and Matt (Paul Soter) get caught red-handed stealing food from the college cafeteria, but Felix (Steve Lemme) calmly climbs out a back window and gets away. Later, at a party with his friend, Zach (Jay Chandrasekar), Felix catches sight of Suzanne (Kayren Butler) and is… More Grogan (Kevin Heffernan) and Matt (Paul Soter) get caught red-handed stealing food from the college cafeteria, but Felix (Steve Lemme) calmly climbs out a back window and gets away. Later, at a party with his friend, Zach (Jay Chandrasekar), Felix catches sight of Suzanne (Kayren Butler) and is immediately smitten. But not only does Suzanne have Traci (Jamison Selby), her jock boyfriend from home, hanging around, it also turns out that she's defending Felix's moronic friends in the school's case against them. As if this wasn't enough trouble, she's also trying to get them to turn in their unknown accomplice. Zach has his own romantic problems. He's gotten the phone number of a beautiful woman, but she's left out one of the digits, and he's too shy to approach her again, necessitating several hours of dialing wrong numbers. Meanwhile, Suzanne's friend, Emily (Alison Clapp), is being pursued by the kooky campus mailroom worker, Freaky Reaky (Erik Stolhanske). Puddle Cruiser was the first feature from the Colgate University-spawned comedy troupe, Broken Lizard, who produced the film independently. The film was well received at several festivals, including the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, but failed to find a distributor. The troupe took the film on an innovative national college tour, selling tickets and building word-of-mouth. Broken Lizard's follow-up feature, Super Troopers, received a wide theatrical release in 2001. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 44 min.
Directed By: Jay Chandrasekhar
Genres: Comedy, Romance

On DVD: Dec 6, 2005

Critic Reviews

Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
The writing, acting, and directing (oh, and editing) are clearly, woefully lacking.

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Featured Audience Ratings

Conner R

While it's nowhere near a good movie, it's extremely impressive that Broken Lizard managed to make this for so little money and with almost no experience. There's some really great moments and funny characters that make it at least worth watching.
Luke B

A decent college romance comedy that is surprisingly more in the former. Seeing the young and talented members of Broken Lizard in their humble origins is, in itself, great to watch. The plot is thin and unlike their later efforts, tries hard to include all the troupe but ends up with… More
A decent college romance comedy that is surprisingly more in the former. Seeing the young and talented members of Broken Lizard in their humble origins is, in itself, great to watch. The plot is thin and unlike their later efforts, tries hard to include all the troupe but ends up with bizarre sketchy subplots. There's no witty dilalogue, and there are only a few glimpses of the Broken Lizard humour prevalent in their later offerings. It's excellent first time film making, but only in retrospect. There are some wonderful moments, the character of Freak Reaky certainly needs a resurrection. It's probably best as a stand alone watch inspired by curiosity, rather than a sit down laugh out loud film.
Martin B

I was hesitant to even watch this early film from Broken Lizard, because older first films tend to suck. It certainly feels like something some friends threw together in college - an ultra-low budget flick with some really horrible acting (Most of the main cast does a fine job, with… More
I was hesitant to even watch this early film from Broken Lizard, because older first films tend to suck. It certainly feels like something some friends threw together in college - an ultra-low budget flick with some really horrible acting (Most of the main cast does a fine job, with the exception of Steve Lemme, who unfortunately was the main character). But it also contains all the same kinds of humor found in BL's other films. Not quite up to the level of their later offerings, but funny nonetheless.
Emily A

Very humble and rather mediocre beginnings of the Broken Lizard troupe. It had its moments, but they were few and far between. The main girl was not a very good actress, but I have no objections to watching Steve Lemme for an hour and a half.
Wu C

Interesting to see the Broken Lizard crew in their first picture, but it's not very good. Throwback to 80's screwball comedies.