Puddle Cruiser

This good-natured college comedy launched the film careers of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe, who have since enjoyed a cult following with their subsequent features (Super Troopers and Club Dread) and even made inroads to Hollywood (director Jay Chandrasekhar helmed the big-screen Dukes of Hazzard movie). Here the five Lizards play a quintet of clueless college guys pursuing women with varying degrees of success; the humor is broad without tipping too heavily into gross territory, and several moments are laugh-out-loud funny, especially the group's riffs on independent theater, and a missing phone number digit. Made for an astronomically small amount (and funded largely with credit cards), Puddle Cruiser was promoted largely through a screening tour of colleges, which is covered in the disc's accompanying featurette, "Rodeo Clowns." All five Broken Lizard members are also featured on some very amusing commentary tracks. --Paul Gaita