Offbeat partners on the beat

Bon Cop Bad Cop was hardly the first movie to pair unlikely police officers, but it did provide a uniquely Canadian take on the genre. Here are some other famous constabulary combinations:

Black Cop/White Cop — First seen in 1967’s In the Heat of the Night with Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger; the 1970 sequel took as its title the film’s most famous line, “They call me Mr. Tibbs!” It was given a western spin in Blazing Saddles with Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder in 1974, a cop/robber version eight years later with Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte in 48 Hrs., and a science-fiction twist with 1997’s Men in Black, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Earth Cop/Alien Cop — 1988’s Alien Nation paired Earther Matthew Sykes (James Caan) with off-worlder Sam Francisco (Mandy Patinkin). A short-lived TV series and a string of TV movies followed.

Yankee Cop/Irish Cop — A truly excellent comedy, 2011’s The Guard featured Brendan Gleeson as a smalltown officer on the Emerald Isle, and Don Cheadle as an FBI agent on the trail of drug traffickers. Human Cop/Robot Cop — Karl Urban plays the man and Michael Ealy the DRN model android (Dorian) in Almost Human, a short-lived TV series from 2013, set in a crime-ridden future some 30 years hence.

North Cop/South Cop — Korea got in on the action this year with Confidential Assignment, starring Hyun Bin as a dashing North Korean detective, and Yoo Hae-jin as his unkempt Southern partner.

Short Cop/Tall Cop — 2015’s Hot Pursuit tried to wring laughs from the fact that its co-stars are 5-foot-1 (Reese Witherspoon) and five-foot-seven plus heels (Sofia Vergara). It was a stretch.