It still remains a bit of a mystery why "Bon Cop, Bad Cop" turned into such a huge success at the Wisconsin Film Festival.

Approximately 1,500 people jammed into the Orpheum Theatre last month to see the bilingual cop movie, the most since a full house saw "A Hard Day's Night" (hosted by Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert) at the festival in 2003.

"I never have the faintest idea of what film will flourish at the festival," said festival director Meg Hamel.

Those who couldn't get a seat that night at the Orpheum will be happy to know that the movie has its American DVD release this week. (The Canadian import release has been available at Netflix and at some video stores, including Four Star Video Heaven.)

The film should please people who like their languages all mixed up in one movie. Or people who like to watch out-of-control sports mascots. Or people who are amused at the sight of a dead body hanging over a sign that marks the border between Quebec and Ontario.

It's the location of that dead body that provides the plot for "Bon Cop." A by-the-book English-speaking cop from Ontario (Colm Feore) gets teamed up with a free-wheeling Montreal cop (Patrick Huard) who has a crappy car that would make Starsky and Hutch weep.

Their argument over who gets jurisdiction because of which body parts lie in which province sets the tone for the inter-provincial rivalry that permeates the film. The linguistic give-and-take must have been especially sweet for theater-goers in Canada, particularly in Quebec where the film was a smash hit.

As buddy-cop movies go, this one is pretty standard beyond the cultural clash of the two cops and the Canadian sports references. Dead bodies that have some connection to the nation's "hockey community" keep popping up. The angriest sports fan this side of Vincent Gallo in "Buffalo '66" is on a freaky rampage, avenging wounds to his nation's sporting psyche. Clearly, the film's writers are still a little ticked off about the Great One going to L.A. in 1988.

Outside of that, though, this could be "Lethal Weapon," except the off-the-wall cop has an ex-wife, not a dead wife. Lots of things blow up, the cops walk away from the explosions in slow motion, and we all get to watch yet another version of Cop Family Torture when the bad guy gets a little personal.

For a movie with the most standard of plots, "Bon Cop, Bad Cop" has an interesting story to it. When it was released in August 2006 it quickly became the highest-grossing film in Quebec, topping a blockbuster like "The Da Vinci Code." It has made more money in Canada than any other Canadian-made film, beating a record set by "Porky's" in 1982. (Who knew "Porky's" was Canadian?)

Still, that record is only $13 million, which pales in comparison to the blockbusters made south of the border.

"A lot of people asked (at the Wisconsin Film Festival), 'Is this a sign that the film fest is going to start showing blockbusters?' " Hamel said. "But in world cinema, that's nothing."

"Bon Cop" also won best picture honors at Canada's Oscars, the Genie Awards, beating out "Trailer Park Boys: The Movie." (As a huge contrast, "Away From Her" won last year.) Some fans and critics derided "Bon Cop" as "ketaine," which is loosely translated in Quebecois as "kitsch." Still, it's a fun spin on a familiar genre even if, like "Hot Fuzz," it does go on just a little too long.

Kitsch or not, it made for a raucous Friday night at the Orpheum last month.

"I dug it," Hamel said. "I have a crush on the French-speaking cop now."