Movie: Bon Cop Bad Cop

[sholio]

This movie was SO. VERY. CANADIAN.

Also ... if you have a problem watching police/law enforcement brutality on TV (which I sort of do) ... wow this is really not the movie for you. XD I enjoyed it a lot but I kept having to shut down the part of my brain that kept screaming BUT THEY CAN'T GET AWAY WITH THAT!

Having said that, it was a ridiculously fun movie, and I think the thing I loved most about it was the casual bilingualism - the way that the characters shifted between French and English, or lapsed into their native language (whichever it was) for idioms they couldn't remember how to say in the other one, or missed just enough of what the other person was saying for the conversation to derail itself. I guess it helps that, despite the fact that I don't remember enough of my high school French to make myself understood in even the most rudimentary fashion, I do still understand enough of it that I could get at least some of the basics in the movie (like the difference between the Ontario cop's European-French accent and the Québécois French that most of the characters were speaking).

This scene (link goes to Youtube) gives you an idea of what the whole movie is like, in terms of language -- and police brutality, and profanity (not work safe!). XD (Hey, I can curse in Québécois French now! Yay?)

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Comments

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

Hee! That's one of my favourite movies. (I'm an anglo-Montrealer). The scenes at Patrick Huard's character's daughter's school were filmed at my little sister's CÉGEP. She spent the whole time going "... that hallway doesn't go to that room."

[sholio]

Ha! That's really awesome! :D I had so much fun watching the movie, and it made me want to go brush up on my terrible French so that I could understand more of what they were saying -- or rather, understand more of the jokes and character stuff, I guess is a more accurate way to describe my motivations. ^^

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

It really is a fun movie. Rick Mercer's "Ron Berry" cracked me up like you wouldn't believe - such an awesome parody of Don Cherry. And it was absolutely plausible that someone would take hockey that seriously.

Other personal connection: I served Patrick Huard a muffin, once, when I worked at the muffin place in the mall.

He's got another film out at the moment, "Starbuck", about a very sexually-active guy who suddenly discovers he has hundreds of kids. It looks really funny.

[sholio]

I served Patrick Huard a muffin, once, when I worked at the muffin place in the mall.

Hee! Cool! :D Small world ...

[sophia-sol.livejournal.com]

Ahaha, THIS MOVIE. I love it SO MUCH! It is SO CANADIAN! Although watching it made me wish desperately that I were better at French, because my small amounts of knowledge made it clear that there are subtleties and jokes that you miss if you watch this movie as a monolingual person, even with the subtitles.

[sholio]

*giggles helplessly* I KNOW RIGHT? I think the over-the-top Canadian-ness of the movie reminded me a lot of Alaskan humor, where we make a lot of really ridiculous jokes about outhouses and dog mushing and crazed gun-toting Libertarians in the half-proud, half-depressing knowledge that all of it is WAY MORE TRUE THAN WE WANT TO ADMIT.

About the French - yeah, I know. This movie made me aware that I know just enough French to know how much I don't know, and I think I would've grasped so much more more that the movie was trying to get across if I'd been able to understand more of it.