{"id":8269,"date":"2010-02-22T20:05:01","date_gmt":"2010-02-23T04:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=8269"},"modified":"2010-02-22T22:16:44","modified_gmt":"2010-02-23T06:16:44","slug":"father-and-guns-emile-gaudreault-2009-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=8269","title":{"rendered":"Father and Guns (\u00c9mile Gaudreault, 2009): Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Nicholas Berquist<\/a>. \u00a0Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The very first thing you notice about \u00c9mile Gaudreault\u2019s Father and Guns<\/em> is this film feels like Hollywood.\u00a0 The Quebec Government funds the film industry in their province and they definitely shelled out a few loonies for this picture.<\/p>\n

The production value is evident right off the bat.\u00a0 As the film begins we see sweeping, swooping shots of the Montreal rooftops and on one in particular, a team of super cops.\u00a0 The pacing of the film, unlike most foreign films, is right on par with the quick rapid pace we are accustomed to from Hollywood.\u00a0 Marc LaRoche (Louis-Jose Houde) is the son of legendary detective Jacques LaRoche (Michel Cote) and the two are at constant odds, even from the first scene.\u00a0 After their undercover, rooftop operation leads to the kidnapping of Marc\u2019s friend they must tread carefully hoping a misstep wont lead to the death of the kidnapped officer.<\/p>\n

Their only hope lies in Charles Berube.\u00a0 He is the lawyer for the biker gang holding Marc\u2019s friend hostage, and he also suffers from a mid-life crisis.\u00a0 Berube\u2019s wife wants him to reconnect with their suicidal son so she sends both of them to a father-son bonding camp.\u00a0 This is the perfect opportunity for Marc and Jacques to offer Berube a deal alone.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the drawback is Marc and Jacques can\u2019t survive each other in a city.\u00a0 Sending these two out into the wilderness and forcing them to work as a team is a surefire recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n

Even though this is a French-Canadian film everything about the story translates to our language and culture.\u00a0 For the most part, foreign comedies aren\u2019t as funny in America.\u00a0 Whether the jokes don\u2019t translate as well or we just have different senses of humor, generally they just aren\u2019t as good.\u00a0 That is not the case with Father and Guns<\/em>.\u00a0 This film is downright hilarious.\u00a0 When the fathers and sons first arrive for the bonding camp they select dolls from a bin that represent their respective family member.\u00a0 This is one of those rare scenes when you don\u2019t get to see everything because it\u2019s so funny you can\u2019t see through the tears.<\/p>\n

This genre I also believe is a very American genre.\u00a0 Crime dramas are popular all over the world, but crime comedies are a more domestic concoction, a la Observe and Report<\/em> and Paul Blart: Mall Cop<\/em>.\u00a0 Gaudreault\u2019s was able to really explore all genres in this film so perhaps a crime comedy isn\u2019t the best description but it certainly encapsulates what this film is about.\u00a0 There aren\u2019t any sad scenes and the ones that are supposed to be emotional have a goofy, sarcastic undertone.\u00a0 The film is somewhat touching for those young men out there with oppressive fathers.\u00a0 Houde and Cote have wonderfully chemistry and really portray the relationship these two men have quite well.<\/p>\n

The only setback for this otherwise great film is the predictability.\u00a0 This may be more of a byproduct of being an avid Hollywood film viewer, but the film does have a sense of predictability.\u00a0 The comedic writing is superb, but the story unfolds rather slowly and the ending happens all at once.\u00a0 Not to mention it\u2019s a no-brainer how this story will end.\u00a0 Hollywood loves happy endings and that is a big reason why this film will be under intense scrutiny to determine whether or not it is a viable option for a remake.\u00a0 In my opinion, Gaudreault did as fine a job as any director could have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Nicholas Berquist. \u00a0Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The very first thing you notice about \u00c9mile Gaudreault\u2019s Father and Guns is this film feels like Hollywood.\u00a0 The Quebec Government funds the film industry in their province and they definitely shelled out a few loonies for this picture. The production value is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,131],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}