Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (Director: Mike Clattenburg, Canada, 2006): A double-dose of Canadiana this weekend for your humble reviewer. In contrast with Bon Cop Bad Cop, though, it’s not strictly necessary to have a maple leaf on your passport to enjoy this one.
Based on the popular (in Canada, anyway) Showcase television series, the Trailer Park Boys’ feature-length film doesn’t surprise, but it does deliver the laughs reliably. The thing about this group of characters is their incredibly limited range, which limits the plots, as well. I’ve only seen about three or four episodes, from various seasons, but I always feel like I’m watching the same episode. Not that this is a criticism. Half the fun is watching the boys end up back where they started at the end of every episode. And the fact that we don’t learn anything new makes sense when Julian, Ricky and Bubbles never learn anything new, either.
But I did sort of wonder what was gained by expanding this to feature length and putting it on a big screen. There are some fun cameos from Gord Downie (from the Tragically Hip) and Alex Lifeson (from Rush) as cops who pursue our trio in a high-tech police chase. And former Headstones singer Hugh Dillon (notorious as Joe Dick in Bruce McDonald’s Hardcore Logo) turns in a suitably creepy performance as a strip club owner. But overall, this is just an entertaining trifle, and maybe for our American friends, an introduction to the world of Sunnyvale Trailer Park.
(6/10)