by MATTHEW HAYS

The English-Canadian film community has spent the last 10 years watching with extreme envy as Quebec’s film industry has boomed. There was an Oscar for Denys Arcand for Les Invasions barbares (among a bunch of other awards), a string of box-office successes and that elusive goal: local audiences who were willing to loyally attend homegrown films.

And now, finally, a Montreal-made film that hopes to share some of that success with the anglo cinema industry. Not only will Bon Cop Bad Cop reach across the Two Solitudes, the filmmakers behind it clearly hope it will also spread some of that box-office luck and charm beyond Quebec’s borders. The premise, the brainchild of the film’s star, Patrick Huard, will be familiar to buddy flick aficionados: two cops from very different backgrounds must work together despite their differences to stop a mysterious, nefarious super criminal. In this case, Huard plays the down-and-dirty Montreal cop, a rough-and-tumble sort who writes his own rulebook. (Sound familiar?) Colm Feore is the buttoned-down, anal WASP from Toronto who just can’t understand Huard’s scurrilous ways. The contrived anglo-Québécois symbolic demographics were so intense here I almost expected them to embark on a three-hour tour and get stranded on a desert island together.

When all else fails, what might actually bring Canadians and Quebecers together? Why, hockey, of course! It seems the serial killer (complete with hockey mask) is stalking members of Canada’s hockey community, and that means our dynamic duo has a mission that borders on the religious.

True to its Lethal Weapon/48 Hours/Rush Hour roots, Huard and Feore don’t initially get along. Just like the bilingual country they represent, these two characters often rub each other the wrong way. Huard teaches Feore how to swear, Quebec-style. Feore introduces Huard to his Torontonian sister, who’s ready for some action of her own with a hot Quebec cop.

All of this spells crazy trouble! Indeed, Bon Cop Bad Cop is often a bit too contrived for its own good. But director Erik Canuel has a plan, and it’s actually not such a bad one: Canuel makes it crystal clear early on that he’s striving for complete and utter excess, that nothing about this film will be remotely restrained or subtle. The result is a ludicrous parody of Canadian content, a hilarious thriller in which someone flinches in fear as a killer holds a hockey stick to their neck as if it were a butcher knife.

Bon Cop Bad Cop sounds the alarm bells early on: this is not a film to be taken very seriously. Whether or not English Canada will actually flock to see a buddy movie about the Two Solitudes remains to be seen, but I predict students will be watching this one in film studies classes in years to come. Bon Cop Bad Cop is classic kétaine, a great big chunk of pure fromage, best to be consumed with copious quantities of cigarettes and bad dep wine.

Bon Cop Bad Cop opens Friday, Aug. 4

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