That was one of the many small town Saskatchewan
jokes rising from Corner Gas: The Movie. It was spoken when residents realized
the Dog River Hotel and the bar had closed up leaving people with nowhere to go
drink and hang out. It also marked the height of the town going broke.
Corner Gas: The Movie will definitely
please all those that watched Corner Gas sitcom, which made a six-season run
from January 22, 2004 to April 13, 2009 based on life around a fictitious small Saskatchewan town. All the familiar cast of characters
are back reprising all their familiar roles, but the audience has to purposely
wait until the end of the film to hear old grouch and retired owner of Corner
Gas Oscar Leroy say, “Jackass.”
Don’t worry, Eric Peterson gets to be in the middle of lots of crazy
trouble and plays the Oscar Leroy character to the point all the fans of the
show have come to know and love.
The movie opened in theatres on Wednesday
and makes a short run that ends on Sunday. It will air on television on The
Movie Network Dec. 8, on CTV and CTV Two on Dec. 17 and The Comedy Network on
Dec. 22. The DVD is set to be released on Dec. 16.
With that said, hard core and casual
fans will more than get their money’s worth, if they see the film on the big
screen. You wouldn’t want to miss the 20 minutes of extras before the movie
that includes trivia games, a theme song sing along and bloopers.
The plot line of the 90-minute movie
revolves around the town of Dog River going broke due to the mayor making a bad
investment in real estate.
In order to save the town, the
citizens will attempt to rally to win a quaintest town in Canada contest, which
is being run by a national newspaper and has a more than helpful cash prize.
As the movie goes on, Lacey Burrows
(Gabrielle Miller), who runs The Ruby, becomes the person that spearheads the efforts to win the
quaintest town contest. Brent Leroy (Brent Butt), who runs Corner Gas, makes
efforts to help financially prop up things by buying, reopening and running the
Dog River Hotel and bar.
From there, all sorts of side
storylines spring to life.
One comes from a scheme by Richard
Henry “Hank” Yarbo (Fred Ewanuick), who accidentally brings in an unscrupulous
out of town investor from a corporate chain. The investor helps hatch a plot,
which might give the town its final knock-out blow.
Another comes from the fact sergeant
David Quinton (Lorne Cardinal) is forced into retirement early in the film. He goes
from being a cartoonish RCMP officer to a cartoonish private investigator. You
also find out he has quite the impressive man cave in the garage of his house,
which Wanda Dollard (Nancy Robertson) turns into jumping night club and later a
hot casino.
Constable Karen Pelly (Tara Spencer-Nairn),
who is pregnant in the film, goes mad issuing tickets to the town’s citizens
for every type of violation imaginable, which results in her earning a
colourful nickname. She also ends up having a hilarious war with Oscar Leroy
over a horse.
Lacey Burrows also breaks into a
SaskPower yard to get the town’s power turned back on.
The movie runs nice and tight and
has a really smooth feel. It easily lives up to the classic style of the
television series.
So will the citizens of Dog River be
able to save their town?
Don’t let the town riot at the
beginning of the movie fool you, as people don’t really know everyone else’s
business like you would think. Looks can be deceiving in a town that doesn’t
have a whole lot going on.
If you have any feedback on this
blog, feel free to email comments to stankssports@gmail.com.
