Independent Films, Film Profiles

Bon Cop, Bad Cop

Bon Cop, Bad Cop is a 2006 Canadian comedy-thriller buddy cop film about English Canadian and Québécois police officers who reluctantly join forces. The dialogue is a mixture of English and French. The title is a translation word play on the phrase "Good cop/Bad cop".When a dead body is found hanging on top of the sign demarcating the Ontario-Quebec border, police officers from both Canadian provinces must join forces to solve the murder. David Bouchard (Patrick Huard) is a rule-bending, francophone detective for the Sûreté du Québec, while Martin Ward (Colm Feore) is a by-the-book anglophone Ontario Provincial Police detective. Although both detectives are bilingual, they 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 (Sylvain Marcel) 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's ballet 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 large marijuana grow-op in the basement. They also discover another body, a former hockey team owner. A booby trap 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 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. 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 league hockey. (The film uses thinly disguised parodies of National Hockey League teams, owners and players, however, rather than the real league.) The pair anticipate the next victim, but he goes missing before they reach him. He was about to appear on a hockey talk show, and the two cops chase him off.Ward is attacked in his home by a masked assailant whom he discovers is Therrien. Meanwhile, Bouchard has sex with Ward's sister.The "Tattoo Killer" kidnaps Bouchard's daughter, leading to the final confrontation with the two policemen. It is ultimately revealed that the murders are being committed by a bilingual portly hockey fan as revenge against the hockey league for desecrating the game by moving Canadian teams such as the "Quebec Fleur de Lys" to the United States. They try to reason with him that hockey is just a game, but this only angers him. Ward distracts the man while Bouchard unties his daughter. After a fight, the killer is blown up by one of his own explosives. During the credits, a news report is shown, revealing that the hockey teams will not be moved.