| Bon Cop, Bad Cop | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Érik Canuel |
| Written by | Leila Basen Alex Epstein Patrick Huard Kevin Tierney |
| Produced by | Kevin Tierney |
| Starring | Patrick Huard Colm Feore Michel Beaudry Patrice Bélanger Sarain Boylan Hugolin Chevrette Rick Howland Erik Knudsen Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse Lucie Laurier Sylvain Marcel André Robitaille Rick Mercer |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Motion Picture Distribution LP |
Release date |
|
Running time | 116 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Languages | English French |
| Budget | CAD$8 million |
| Box office | $12.6 million[1] |
Bon Cop, Bad Cop is a 2006 Canadianblack comedy-thrillerbuddy cop film about two police officers – oneOntarian and oneQuébécois – who reluctantly join forces to solve a murder. The dialogue is a mixture of English and French. The title is a translationword play on the phrase "good cop, bad cop".
When a body is found hanging on top of the sign demarcating theOntario–Quebec border, police officers from both Canadian provinces must join forces to solve the murder. David Bouchard is a rule-bending,francophone detective for theSûreté du Québec, while Martin Ward is a by-the-bookanglophoneOntario Provincial Police detective. The bilingual detectives must resolve their professional and cultural differences as well as their bigotry and prejudices.
The body is identified as Benoit Brisset, a hockey executive. The clues lead the pair to Luc Therrien at a roadside bar. After a fight in the bar, they imprison him in the trunk of Bouchard's car. Bouchard has promised to watch his daughter Gabrielle'sballet recital, so he drives to the recital and parks the car in front with Therrien still locked in the trunk. When they emerge, they find the car being towed from the no-parking zone, and as they try to chase down the truck driver, the car explodes.
With their prime witness dead, they decide to search Therrien's house where they find a largemarijuana grow-op in the basement. They also discover another body, a former hockey team owner Grossbut. A laser tripwire is activated by Bouchard, a bomb explodes which sets the house on fire, destroying the house and causing the two cops to get high on the fumes of the burning marijuana. When they are disciplined by Bouchard's police chief Roger Leboeuf shortly afterwards, he angrily removes them from the case after they start laughing hysterically because they're still high.
The next victim is discovered in Toronto, the League's first woman agent Martina Flabcheeks. They realize that the killer has a pattern of tattooing his victims, with each tattoo providing a clue to the next murder victim. Each murder is in some way connected to major leaguehockey. (The film uses thinly disguisedparodies ofNational Hockey League teams, owners and players, however, rather than the real league.) The pair anticipate the next victim Pickleton, but he goes missing before they reach him. Ward and Bouchard appear on a hockey broadcast to warn people in the hockey community to be vigilant. The "Tattoo Killer" calls in to the show and threatens the two police officers, causing a brawl between them and the neurotic anchor Tom Berry when they attempt to hang up.
Ward is attacked in his home by a masked assailant whom he discovers is Therrien. Meanwhile, Bouchard has sex with Ward's sister Iris.
The "Tattoo Killer" kidnaps Gabrielle in exchange of the League commissioner Harry Buttman, leading to the final confrontation with the two policemen by indeed kidnapped Buttman. It is ultimately revealed that the murders are being committed by a bilingual portly hockey fan, as previously mentioned, under the direction and unequal partnership of a sadistic, psychopathic, sociopathic, fan of the notion of the game of hockey as a Canadian nationalistic symbol that he feels is being permanently corrupted by attempts to move ownership of Canadian teams to venture capitalist groups in the United States. He is therefore having Therrien commit the murders along with him (with the tattoos as a signature), as revenge against the hockey league for desecrating the game by moving Canadian teams such as the "Quebec Fleur de Lys" (a reference to the now-defunctQuebec Nordiques) to the United States. They try to reason with him that hockey is just a game and exchange Therrien who the detectives intercepted tailing them at a conference, for Gabrielle, but this only angers him. The Tattoo Killer executes Therrien and as the two policemen give him Buttman, Ward distracts the man while Bouchard unties Gabrielle. After a fight, the killer is blown up by one of his own explosives that Ward put in his pocket. During the credits, a news report is shown, revealing that Buttman shall make a rule that no hockey teams will be moved.
Bon Cop, Bad Cop claimed to be Canada's firstbilingual feature film, although that accomplishment in fact belongs toAmanita Pestilens (1963). Since the film revolves around the concept of mixed cultures and languages, most scenes include a mixture ofFrench andEnglish dialogue, with characters switching language rapidly. The entire movie was filmed using both a French and an English script, and the language used at each moment was finalized only later, during editing.[2] The film was then released in two official versions, one for Anglophones and one for Francophones, which differ only in their subtitles and in a few spoken lines. On DVD, the film has multiple subtitle options, including every line in either English, in French, or in their respective languages; just the French lines in English (as released theatrically in English-speaking Canada) and vice versa (as released theatrically in French-speaking Canada); and an option for no subtitles for bilingual viewers.
The film opened in Quebec on August 4, 2006 (and Canada-wide on August 18), and, as of December 17, 2006, had grossed $12,665,721 US ($12,578,327CAD), making it one of the highest-grossingCanadian films of all time domestically. While the film has generated only $1.3 million outside of Quebec,[3] its success is significant given the difficulties that Canadian films normally face at the box office inEnglish Canada.
In October 2006,Bon Cop, Bad Cop's producers claimed that the film had become the highest-grossing Canadian film domestically, surpassing the $11.2 million teen comedyPorky's earned in Canada in 1981. However, the numbers were later disputed as not having taken inflation into account.
The film has not been released theatrically outside Canada, although it has been screened at film festivals and other occasions in the United States[4][5] and France.[6]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 80% of 10 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.2/10.[7]
| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipients(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canadian Comedy Awards | 12 October 2007 | Best Male Performance | Patrick Huard | Won | [8] |
| Colm Feore | Nominated | ||||
| Best Direction | Érik Canuel | Won | |||
| Best Writing | Patrick Huard,Leila Basen,Kevin Tierney,Alex Epstein | Won | |||
| Directors Guild of Canada | 29 September 2007 | Best Direction in a Feature Film | Érik Canuel | Nominated | [9][10] |
| Genie Awards | 13 February 2007 | Best Motion Picture | Kevin Tierney | Won | [11][12] |
| Best Director | Érik Canuel | Nominated | |||
| Best Actor | Colm Feore | Nominated | |||
| Patrick Huard | Nominated | ||||
| Best Art Direction/Production Design | Jean Bécotte | Nominated | |||
| Best Cinematography | Bruce Chun | Nominated | |||
| Best Editing | Jean-François Bergeron | Nominated | |||
| Best Overall Sound | Dominique Chartrand,Gavin Fernandes, Nathalie Morin and Pierre Paquet | Won | |||
| Best Sound Editing | Christian Rivest, Valéry Dufort-Boucher, and Tchae Measroch | Nominated | |||
| Best Original Song | Éric Lapointe, Stéphane Dufour and Jamil for "Tattoo" | Nominated | |||
| Jutra Awards | 18 February 2007 | Best Film | Kevin Tierney | Nominated | [13] |
| Best Director | Érik Canuel | Nominated | |||
| Best Actor | Colm Feore | Nominated | |||
| Patrick Huard | Nominated | ||||
| Best Supporting Actor | Pierre Lebeau | Nominated | |||
| Best Supporting Actress | Lucie Laurier | Nominated | |||
| Best Screenplay | Leila Basen, Alex Epstein, Patrick Huard, and Kevin Tierney | Nominated | |||
| Best Art Direction | Jean Bécotte | Nominated | |||
| Best Editing | Jean-François Bergeron | Won | |||
| Best Hair | Johanne Paiement | Nominated | |||
| Best Makeup | Claudette Beaudoin-Casavant | Nominated | |||
| Best Original Music | Michel Corriveau | Nominated | |||
| Best Sound | Dominique Chartrand, Christian Rivest, Gavin Fernandes and Pierre Paquet | Nominated | |||
| Billet d'or | Won | ||||
The film was released on DVD in Canada on December 19, 2006.
A sequel film,Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2, was filmed in 2016 and released in May 2017.[14]
In 2023,Bell Media announced that an eight-episode television series was in development, featuring David Bouchard and Martin Ward in a new crime investigation.[15] The series entered production in 2025 for a planned debut in 2026, with Huard reprising the role of David Bouchard butHenry Czerny taking over the role of Martin Ward.[16] Other cast members in the series includeSarah-Jeanne Labrosse,Nathaniel Arcand,Joshua Odjick,Christine Beaulieu,Antoine Vézina,Irdens Exantus,Robin-Joël Cool,Q052,Rita Baga,Mona de Grenoble andBarbada de Barbades.[17] The plot will hinge on Bouchard and Ward having to cooperate with an Indigenous police officer (Odjick) to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a native band chief (Arcand).[17]
