August 22, 2006
Enfin! Un Rush Hour Canadien
OK, d'accord, comme promis, without compromise, we have right here your revue franglais de Bon Cop Bad Cop. Compris?
Le film commence avec le discovery d'un body sprawled across la frontière du Québec and l'Ontario like a grim metaphor for the last 10 years de Torontoist(e)'s life. Say ce qu'tu veux du film, but we may never look at that sign on la 401 the same way again.
L'offering s'agit d'un 'cop movie' cliché with des explosions clichés wherein family members are menacéed in a clichéd manière, against a backdrop of every imaginable cliché about Canadiens, le hockey and La Difference. Mais, mixed all together avec plein de bons bad jokes, gory murders, pop culture references and lots of word play, ça marche! Throughout the movie, le monde was laughing à plein coeur at all the right moments.
Despite its bilinguisme, the movie retains un sensibilité Québecois distinct that was refreshing to see sur l'écran à Toronto. Torontoist(e) particularly appreciated le villain qui parle avec un accent in both languages ("Who was your teacher? Jean Chrétien?") and scenes where Francophone characters spoke English to francophones pour être mieux understood. Uniting the two solitudes over a shared resentment of American hockey sell-outs was also a stroke of génie.
Funny, violent, it was… what's the word? Blockbusterlicious? Since it's doing well at la billeterie, j'imagine qu'we can look forward to une belle bonne sequel. Until then, keep hockey in Canada, and vive le Québec libre.
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Wonderful Franglish!! This brought on a smile.
Completely off topic rant: J'pense que the confusion here (is it Torontoist or Torontoiste?) reinforces my thoughts on the collective "we" format of some blogs. Je trouve que c'est somewhat absurd and somewhat inappropriate when writers present their individual pieces (especially those with opinion) on behalf of the collective whole. That said, j'espere que Torontoist(e)'s gender identity crisis is sorted out sans problemes. ;)
English Canada needs to take some solid lessons from the phenomenon of Québecois cinema. Even though the story is just OK, the flick is proof that Canadians like to hear about ourselves, as well as take in a good action-comedy. The Varsity theatre I saw it in was sold-out, and the anglophone audience cheered and clapped throughout.
The jokes weren't usually as hokey as they are in the trailer, and I was pleasantly surprised at the believability of the relationship between the two cops. It was much more credible than any of the usual Rush Hour-type American flicks.
The most stellar thing about it was the acting. The casting was flawless, and Colm Feore is a national treasure. Their family dynamics were very well-done and surprisingly untrite, and the action sequences were restrained, realistic and effective. The flick had a solid style à la Guy Ritchie's films and never took itself too seriously until it needed to.
All in all, worth seeing. Any Hollywood flick would be in good hands with this director. Leaving the theatre, I heard three different people say it was the best Canadian movie ever made. It isn't, but it shows we can play with the big dogs not only with tortured art films, but with plain ol' commercial action entertainment too. And there's nothing wrong with the latter.
Merci Jerold. Glad you enjoyed it.
Hors-Topic:
Touché. Mais observons donc que Parisist.com utilise le "ist" propre, sans confusion.
Personellement, I think the "we" is funny, and since it's essentially the only editorial guideline we have, I'm not pushing to have it dropped. Rather than forcing writers into a collective, I feel it properly reinforces Its Torontoness' existence as a self-referrential, ambiguous and fickle entity.
I (e) becuase I love.
it's not 'franglish', it's chiac. so jill, you must be from Moncton NB, n'est pas ma belle? right la fun.
The Dude: We dropped off the damn money...
The Big Lebowski: We?
The Dude: I! The Royal "we"! You know, the editorial...
- Le Big Lebowski
I recommend this movie as well.
I wonder what happens to the cops after the end though...
Do people in other countries use half-french the way we do? Not to the extent of this post (which I love love love) but just the casual throwing-in of simple "sans" and "le" and "dans" and "avec" in conversations.
This post is also a much-needed continuation of that hilarious bread commerical-- BIBLIOTHEQUE!
Gotta love the Cohen Bros, and how a propos that quote is here! Good one!
Ben non, riles. In Anglo Montréal we always called it Franglais. However, I do believe that franco-franglais is subtly different from anglo-franglais. Maybe this is why it sounds like NB to you. My linguistic heritage includes domestic instruction by Atlantic Canadian parents who believe that to make any word French, you just have to speak English but add an "er/ez/ait" sound to the end.
I don't know about French, Paige, but I believe some Americans do enjoy Spanglish.
Spanglish was a terrible movie
as for the "we" - keep it
Bon Cop Bad Cop was alright but Canadian Cinema can do far greater things.
the review definitely made me smile.
as a bilingue ontarian i find it really hard de m'exprimer en franglais now that i'm living in la colombie britannique (also known as la gauche coast). les gens icitte don't appreciate it (or were never forced to watch telefrancais a l'ecole). we should start a franglais-withdrawal communaute!
Bonne idée Vanessa. L'Association Canado-Internationale pour the Preservation of Franglais/Chiac. Tu peut etre mon pen-pal if you want.
Great post, Jill!
Merci, Mamselle Carrie
La fun, indeed. It is un super post! But on l'appelle Frenglish/Franglais in NDG, anyways. Chiac is une phenomene Acadian...
Wow. I guess I underestimated how many Torontoists care about franglophone culture. But we've got the usual Montreal suspects on here, NB, BC, and Toronto propper all representing. Anyone from the prairies want to weigh in here?
I think Jill should consider posting en tous les deux languages souvent. :)
Le damn, I wish nous all parlered like that.
Well, my French half is from the wilds of les prairies du Manitoba and though I've lived in the GTA for nearly twenty years (merde, déjà?) j'étais née in Winnipeg... Does that count?
Ce revue est ridiculously awesome. Comme le Dominion/Bibliothèque ad Paige a mentionné, a charming and welcome reminder de notre culture bilingue. Jill, have you been eavesdropping on my conversations avec ma mère??
Bien sur, ca compte,Devl! Franglais pride!
Perhaps after I've mastered Korean I'll give French another chance. I took it in school of course, but I've lost most of it in the last 10 years.
Chunun muunga mashigo shipsumnida!
hmm. us north york denizens [despite being an expat now] have been informed by our haitian neighbours that y'all in quebec basically speak english in french words. [of course, this is spoken against a backdrop of jamaican patois, haitian creole, and numerous asian languages]
how would i know? i learned french in the york board of ed, which means i know no french at all. nice article jill.
Bonjour de sunny Californie, mes amies....
Cette post là... I do not think it is... how you say... comme les Franglais or chiac for sure...
Because, parce-que -- it is a combination of Français and Anglais, yes yes... but you see, the Franglais vraie, she is written IN THE FRENCH IDIOM.
You have used toutes les words de BOTH langues, bien sur, but this post, she is not the TRUE Franglais. The true Franglais, she is Henglish, avec toutes phrase Français... un peu de tout, mixte throughout... avec les words ne pas bon in French ou Anglais...
Par example:
"Plug-ez la boulloire"... or "Ma car, she marche pas." Compris?
Merci for checking in from LA Annamaryse, but I really must insist that if you are, in fact, au fond, une maudite anglophone du West Island comme moi, then your Franglais comes out comme la mienne. I think rather, that that what defines Franglais is a lax attitude to how the words are used, not the order in which they come out.