by GENEVIEVE PAIEMENT

Les Dangereux is the latest film from the director (Louis Saia) and the producer (Richard Goudreau) of Les Boys I, II, III, and the venerable IV (coming in 2003!). If you’re familiar with the exaggerated, dumb humour of this hockey saga and that of the godfather of Québécois comedies, Elvis Gratton, then you’ll spot the style of Les Dangereux from a mile away. You’ll even recognize a few of the good ol’ Boys here. So the cards are on the table: Les Dangereux’s commercial aims are about as subtle as the lit-up Labatt Blue poster on stage in all of the movie’s concert scenes.

The movie allegedly stars Véronique Cloutier as Roxane Labelle, a Québécoise pop star along the lines of Marjo (pop with some rock vixen in her). “Allegedly” because Cloutier delivers approximately 12 lines during the entire movie. True, her character is bound and gagged through most of the action, but one can’t help but feel that the main purpose of perky, blonde Cloutier’s top billing is to provide star power, eye candy and little else. If you don’t watch French-language TV, or pick up the francophone TV guides at grocery-store checkout counters, you may not know that Cloutier is a major celeb in Quebec, adored by the millions of viewers of the very popular Radio-Canada variety show she hosts, La Fureur. The former MusiquePlus VJ is so popular, in fact, that she has come to be known in this province simply as “Véro” by her fans and the tabloid press that keeps up on what she wears and her personal life.

But despite her not having much to say in Les Dangereux, the plot does revolve around this sexy pop star with attitude, as she gets kidnapped by some ugly bad guys and her manager-record exec father sends his cute and bumbling accountant to provide the million-dollar ransom. But wait, dontcha know, things go wrong. A pair of eccentric hit men are in pursuit of the ransom, there’s a subplot about Asian triads, some Weekend at Bernie’s-type corpse humour thrown in for good measure, a helluva lot of guns, as well as violence that’s as wacky as it is gratuitous. Also, each character is introduced in that played-out, Trainspotting rip-off style: the kooky voiceover anecdote, topped off with a frozen frame at just the right moment, for added impact. And continuing the legacy of classic dumb Québécois comedies, most of the characters are larger-than-life, thick-headed, grotesque and freaky (except Véro, er, Roxane, and Francis, the pretty-boy accountant).

Despite Les Dangereux’s clichés and formulaic plot, there are some funny moments here, even some laugh-out-loud ones. If your average, churned-out Hollywood comedy is a greasy, artery-clogging supersize fry, than Les Dangereux is a smoked meat poutine—it’s still junkfood, and it sure smells weird, but it’s junkfood de chez nous and a lot of us like it that way. :

Les Dangereux opens Friday, Dec. 6

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