Reviews

I guess I can report on the obvious efforts to make everything look so real, as many others have pointed, which would not add much to what was already stated.

I would like to address the claim from someone that there was an 'obvious error' in having McCluskey not having lost his bomb (it was Max Leslie from the Yorktown, who is not portrayed in the movie, who lost his bomb due to a fault in the arming mechanism).

The over-Hollywood things that caused the loss of one star is the dramatic dead stick landing of the last plane well after everyone else came back (I mean, come on, everyone took off at the same time, went to attack the same ship; coming back well after everyone else means he would have needed to stop somewhere...), the fact that Nimitz learned as a pleasant surprise the deception of having the enemy report on the loss of water processing capability on Midway (Nimitz was notified from the beginning, as he had to authorize the preparation of the fake report), and (probably an oversight that most everyone would have missed) the fact that a ship as large as an aircraft carrier exploding would still have the report come a second later than the flash, since sound is still propagating at, well, the speed of sound.

On the (very very) positive plus side: the almost maniacally accurate depiction of the aircraft and ships, a selection of actors that is apparently not based on the star status of the actor but on the fact that, with the proper haircut, those actors are jaw-dropping doppelganger of the real historical figures. When I first heard Woody Harrelson would be portraying Chester Nimitz, I had doubts. But see the pictures? Holy smoke! That's HIM!

That film should have been longer, there is so much that happened that is not shown (the amazing work of Yorktown's damage control crew, who managed to keep operational a ship that kept getting hit; the CAP fighters protecting the fleet and escorting the waves of attack planes, with their Thach Weave that helped balance the superior speed and maneuverability of the A6M Zero), but I assume a film long enough to do justice to all the action would reduce the number of showing per screen... Well, hopefully, there will be a 2 DVD edition some day...

I could write reams about how much of a disappointment that story is. But I shall be succinct (couple paragraphs) because it does not deserve much of my time. This is just a very small sample of the faults I found without even trying hard.

I have an issue with verisimilitude. If a movie is about a man wearing his brief over leggings with a big S on his chest, able to fly without using any muscle, OK, that is a given and we should take, as this is what the movie advertise. But jumping from one ship to another one that is so far to not even be seen to take aim would actually require the same kind of "leave your critical sense at home" that is needed to think that a man could be bitten by a radio active spider and acquire all its abilities.

But when a movie tries to show realistic hardware and misses the boat so completely, it completely destroys everything. Case in point: people are in a Moon base where gravity is 1/6 that of Earth, yet everyone walks normally. And between two US bases on said Moon, are a bunch of renegades that will attack on sight? For what? Is everyone riding a Moon buggy assumed to be carrying million in gold bullions or something? Bases large enough to have *fast food joints* with EXTERIOR neon signs (who the (*^$ is going to be lured by those anyway???) and not enough security people to go and pacify the highwaymen?

Then, on the way from the Moon to Mars, you just happen to pass by orbital laboratories? And there you are, going at least 3000 km per *second*, and you can stop just like that to check things out?

What a massive let down... When leaving the theater, I could only repeat to my better half that this was garbage. Anyone willing to accept that fittest and greatest astronaut in the corps (with a rank of major) is merely some kind of maintenance guy on an antenna?

There is so much "happy" coincidences that cannot be explained that are not even necessary to the story, it is like a Swiss cheese plot without any cheese, the holes occupy 100% of the volume.

But I have to commend Tommy Lee Jones' character. For someone who has been alone in space for 16 years, he kept his hair relatively neat and tidy. Not to mention that he must have had plenty of oxygen and food to last that long. That is irony, by the way.

C.R.A.Z.Y. is a film that one either gets and can relate to, or does not. The 1960's and 1970's saw many things change in French Canada, as the omnipresent and somewhat oppressive Catholic church was pushed aside; while people from the previous generation were torn between a legitimate desire for emancipation and the result of years of religious brain washing. The old and the new were mingling, producing an heterogeneous mixture that was confusing to everyone. In the movie, this is best seen by the change in the music: the early 1960's were set in tune with Patsy Cline and Charles Aznavour's timeless music, just about to be displaced in favor of the young generation by pop music, then the hard rock of the Rolling Stone and psychedelic Pink Floyd. This was a time when one could hardly relate to an older sibling for guidance, the world was changing just too fast. Quebec always was, and perhaps shall remain, a mysteriously different place, being truly North American in values and attitudes, while having a perception of being different from the rest of the world, unique. As the USA was struggling with the Vietnam war, Canada was coming of age, with a prime minister who famously stated that the government has nothing to do in bedrooms (thereby dis-criminalizing homosexuality between consenting adults), when Expo 67 literally brought the world over for a visit, but with the lingering pressure of religious groups, and left over gilt and sin overtone. A time when everyone was unsure about who they were (and still are, actually, to a degree) as the world was changing while they were still trying to adapt to yesterday's change.

Like any authentic work of art, C.R.A.Z.Y. is about what the film maker needs to say, not about what the audience wants to hear. The movie will appeal to you, or it will not. If you were born in Quebec's suburbia between 1950 and 1969, then it will ring oh! so true. If not, you may just miss the point. No harm, just like bird seeds is not appealing food to a dog; then move on. This movie was made for folks like me, born in the late 1950's, in the suburb of Montreal. It is not universal and timeless (hence I cannot give it a 10), but it matters to us; my wife cannot feel it like I do, since she was born outside of Canada. My son will not be touched by it like I am, since he was born long after. It is precious to people like me because this was our time and our place; our world, imperfect as it was, precious in our memory. That is the way it really was. We moved on, but we do remember it all.

Despite being based on a somewhat overdone format -- that of two totally opposed policemen forced to team up to resolve a crime -- "Bon Cop, Bad Cop" still manages to come up with a quite entertaining story line, and all that was done with a total budget that would not even pay one half of some of Hollywood superstars. The movie is not without fault; the Bad Cop character (Patrick Huard) is essentially overdone. Chain smoking, foul mouthed cursing, authority defying, he recklessly drives a heap which regularly loses parts around, and is even beating up a vending machine, in short, this is unlikely that someone so headstrong would ever be admitted in a police force, let alone remain in active duty. That said, the movie does have its moments. The scenes featuring the hyper active medical examiner (Louis-Jose Houde) are brilliant (and the actor is not really acting, that is how he is in real life!) or when the Quebec policeman is teaching how to curse "en Quebecois" to his Ontario counterpart, helped along the line by the criminal he his beating and stuffing in his car trunk, are worth the prince of admission. Despite all the clichés that are expected of this format, the movie comes up like a most entertaining one, and no doubt this well served recipe will lead to a "Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2".