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Film Friday: Bad Cop, Worse Cop
Ahem. Yes, this week there are other films out than that film that we refuse to name in this post because we’re covering it enough already. There are plenty of other options, folks.
Your first choice should be, because you are a PATRIOT, something Canadian (natch). And we have to say when Torontoist first saw the trailer for Bon Cop Bad Cop, a two fish swapping water buddy cop flick set in both Ontario and Quebec, Torontoist was very much all “hell yes!”, what with the car chases and explosions and whatnot. And the fact it was Canadian!
And then we went to see it. Here’s what we thought in good, strong, Ontario style English. Torontoist will be posting a Quebec style Franglais review soon enough!
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Now, it’s not the worst movie of all time, or anything. But imagine you got a person off the street and asked them to yell out
a) Random things that happen in buddy cop flicks
b) Things about Canada
And then you just wrote them all on the back of an envelope, and on the front you wrote “Bon Cop Bad Cop: Shooting Script”.
You’d get basically the same thing. Our favourite bit was when they had a car chase for no reason at all (“hey dude, in Quebec sometimes I just like to drive on the wrong side of the road, or the pavement. You know, for fun. I listen to rock music while I do it. And I smoke. And eat poutine. How about that, eh?”) Actually, that’s unfair, they never mention poutine. Colm Feore (as Ontario) and Patrick Huard (as Quebec) are both actually quite excellent in it, though they struggle with a lumpen (ridiculous) plot that sags its way to a deliriously meaningless conclusion. It’s such a shame, we wanted to like it so, so much. Canada deserves better.
(And Rick Mercer is wasted.)
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There are many other possible films out this week though, folks. For example, there’s Brothers of the Head, directors Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe (of Gilliam doc Lost in La Mancha)’s first moc-doc, about a pair of conjoined twins taking on the rock establishment in 70’s London (both Eye and Now liked it, and it’s showing at the Bloor, 506 Bloor W.)
Hollywood hits our screens with The Illusionist (what happened to you, Ed Norton? You used to be cool.) which gets a surprisingly warm review from Now’s John Harkness (“As a friend of old films, this picture could easily have been made seven decades ago. It’s not a bad movie if you like that sort of thing”), Trust the Man (trust yourself to not go and see it. “A limp, soft-focus crowd pleaser” – Eye’s Adam Nayman) and Accepted, which has that annoying jerk out of the Mac ads in it. Do you think it makes Macs feel big and clever to beat up on defenseless PCs? PCs do fun stuff, Mac ads. All the same stuff Macs can do, plus videogames. You just happen to do some things better. And you look way nicer. Sell your product properly, without disinformation.
(Rant over)
This has got a far warmer reception than we expected, too. What, doesn’t everyone hate the Mac guy by now? “Wildly improbable yet hard to dislike”, says Now’s Lori Fireman.
And finally, ho-hai-yan Taiwan Festival has some absolutely ace films on down at the Harbourfront Centre (235 Queens Quay W.) – Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman. Check them out this weekend, starting tonight with The Wedding Banquet at 6pm.