Canada (2006)

Length: 116 minutes

Genre: Action comedy

Producer: Kevin Tierney

Screenplay Patrick Huard and Kevin Tierney

Directed by: Eric Canuel

Starring: Patrick Huard, Colm Feore, Lucie Laurier, Patrice Bélanger, Pierre Lebeau, Ron Lea, Louis-José Houde and Rick Mercer

When a body of a general manager of a professional hockey team is found dead on the provincial border of Ontario and Quebec, David Bouchard, a cop working for the province of Quebec, and Martin Ward, a cop working for the province of Ontario, must work together in order to make their investigation advance even though they don't like each other because of their cultural differences. As their investigation advances, Bouchard and Ward will progressively become friends and their investigation will lead them to a serial killer who kills general managers of professional hockey team who are about to sell a Canadian hockey team to American businessmen so that the team in question can be moved to an American city.

As you all know it, if you live in Canada, you’ve probably heard on the news that Bon Cop Bad Cop is the first bilingual movie in the History of Canadian cinema. This action comedy made so much people laugh that its earnings went to about $1.4 million for a first week, which is a record in the whole History of Canadian cinema. Speaking about Canadian mainstream media, the newspaper La Presse and The Gazette gave a fair rating for Bon Cop Bad Cop and the Journal de Montréal made this movie fail. In the following paragraph, I’ll explain why the movie passes.



Let’s say straightforwardly that Bon Cop Bad Cop is, without a moment of doubt, full of stereotypes about the English and French Canadians. As we learn it by watching the movie, these stereotypes are shown through the relation between David Bouchard and Martin Ward, two policemen who are respectively from the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. Hockey, which is culturally considered as Canada’s national sport, is at the centre of this summer comedy. As a result of the abundance of fully exaggerated Canadian stereotypes Bon Cop Bad Cop becomes a movie that start piling up a plethora of jokes that only Canadians can understand since most of them are cultural references. As it was said in the previous paragraph, since most of the jokes are cultural references, Bon Cop Bad Cop is, unfortunately, not an exportable movie since it is too “local”, in a manner of speaking.



Nevertheless, this very funny and quirky Canadian flick – that is aping American movies such as Rush Hour and Seven – will certainly make you laugh a lot. However, since comedy and hockey are the two elements that are at the centre of the story, Bon Cop Bad Cop, as you’ll see it, often tends to get a little bit away from its main plot (it’s apparently a comedy with a serial-killer), but nobody – not even me anymore – actually cared about this actual fact, because Bon Cop Bad Cop is just a feel-good movie that doesn’t hopefully use its script to pile up all kind of useless thing just like these old mindless kung-fu movies made in Hong Kong. Moreover, the movie often changes its genre without any warning and that's part of the comedy, since the reproduction of other genres is so well done that we really wonder what's the point of mixing other genres with comedy. All in all, as opposed to what you might believe, the scriptwriters certainly paid some attention to the very light script, which is, in my opinion, very well paced for our own good.



If you want me to be very honest with you, what really makes Bon Cop Bad Cop a movie that all of you must definitely see at all cost is obviously the surprisingly nice chemistry between Patrick Huard (Sur le Seuil), an actor who is more known in Quebec for his talent in humour since he’s a humorist, and Colm Feore (Face/Off ; Chicago), one of the most “international” actors that the English Canada has shaped. Huard and Feore, who respectively show up as David Bouchard and Martin Ward, plays two cops, who represent the “two solitudes”. What is really funny is that these two actors are forming such a nice duo in which each performer completes the other, even though their two characters are not necessarily appreciating each other. Despite playing with characters who are so artificial, due to the multiple stereotypes, Patrick Huard and Colm Feore definitely makes us appreciate this movie with their humoristic performance that is only meant to make us laugh.



Into our collective conscience, we say that no comedy movies will be complete without any good supporting actors. Even though she doesn’t occupy a great place in the movie, Lucie Laurier (La Grande Séduction) embodies the dramatic aspect of the movie since she manages very well to move us with her solid acting experience when the movie reaches its climax that will ultimately bring us to the final showdown. Since the movie is full of numerous Canadian cultural stereotypes, Pierre Lebeau plays David Bouchard’s boss, a Quebecker man who can’t even speak English appropriately because of his so-called lumberjack (or blueberry) accent (you know what I’m talking about). Ron Lea, an actor who played in the French Canadian dramatic TV show Casino, as Martin Ward’s boss, is very classy and impeccable as usual. I’m sure that you’ll certainly appreciate the short appearance made by Louis-José Houde, as a coroner called Jeff, and pay attention to his verbal speed when he talks. Finally, I'm sure that you're all going to like the immitation of Don Cherry made by Canadian humorist Rick Mercer, as Tom Berry.



Finally, Bon Cop Bad Cop will certainly not win the Genie Award for the best motion picture, but if you watch this comedy in which the stereotypes are fully well exploited, you must consider it as what it trully is: a piece of entertainment that is done without any irksome pretention. If you're really looking for some fun just watch this movie, because the jokes are just a good way for us Canadians to laugh at us a little bit.

Users' Average Movie Rating: (4.14/5)
Movie Review Rating: 7 out of 7 members agree with this review.

robert_ak on Aug 11th 2006

omg, it's a hilarious movie!!

flyingdagger on Aug 11th 2006

Sure it's so funny. I must admit that the stereotypes, as it was said in the movie review, were just so well exploited that we, as Canadians, were having a feeling that we were laughing at ourselves for our own good. Besides, I really liked the immitation of Don Cherry made by Rick Mercer.

francis on Aug 12th 2006

funny movie, very entertaining

damaged on Aug 13th 2006

cool movie but no story

leominh on Aug 15th 2006

very funny movie... a lot of jokes about stereotypes... no clear story though

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