The gang is standing at the Corner Gas counter — which is stocked with Canadian staples like Old Dutch chips and Hawkins cheezies — pretty much exactly where they were when the TV show ended five years ago.
But the bright, sulphur-yellow Saskatchewan prairie looks even better on the big screen, in a limited run of Corner Gas: The Movie, playing now and through the weekend in Vancouver.
The sitcom ran for six seasons and became a hit thanks to its as-far-as-you-can-get-from-Hollywood premise and the unabashedly corny situations faced by Brent Leroy (Brent Butt) and his fellow Dog River residents.
Everyone is back: Lacey Burrows (Gabrielle Miller) still runs the café next door and seems the perfect match for Brent. The perpetually unemployed Hank Yarbo (Fred Ewanuick) is still scheming on ways to make a million, while gas station employee Wanda (Nancy Robertson) puts some illegal schemes of her own into action, all under the nose of a very pregnant Const. Karen Pelly (Tara Spencer-Nairn) and the newly retired Sgt. Davis Quinton (Lorne Cardinal).
“Nothing exciting ever happens around here,” says Hank. Cue the werewolf-versus-robot battle in the middle of the gas station.
But the real crisis is the town’s finances. Dog River is falling apart and broke, in stark contrast to the starched-white perfection of the town of Wullerton (spit), their closest neighbour and rival.
Smelling blood, a giant doughnut, soup and sandwich chain (remind you of anyone?) is planning to buy up the town and turn it into a regional doughnut plant.
The ever-optimistic Lacey cottons on to the idea of entering the Quaintest Community In Canada contest, which promises enough prize money to fix the town’s water supply and get the electricity turned back on.
“Let’s get quaintin’!” someone enthuses.
Will the town’s residents succumb to the lure of quick money or band together in order to save the town? Will Brent’s mom (Janet Wright) find relief from those grandmotherly pangs? Does anyone actually stop for gas?
It’s good fun watching Wanda run the illegal Copa Havana, which is, sing along with me, “the hottest spot here to Kelowna.” And straight-man Brent Butt’s delivery is reliably funny.
The reunited cast is largely local: Butt and wife Robertson live in Vancouver, as does Ewaniuk; Cardinal lives in Squamish; the North Shore’s Craig Northey did the theme song.
Everyone looks like they’re loving every minute of the shoot in Rouleau, Saskatchewan.
You won’t find any cursing in Corner Gas: The Movie — “bum” is as risqué as things get in Dog River — no nudity, and the only scene of peril might be the sight of Brent’s cranky dad Oscar (Eric Peterson) hanging upside down from a tree.
It’s unabashedly Canadian, right down to the Anvil T-shirt worn by Hank, and it’s good fun. That’s precisely the way Gas fans like it.
