THE Hockey movie!

OK, so there haven't been many movies about the great sport of Ice Hockey. Besides the "Mighty Ducks" franchise (the movies, not the team), you have a choice between A Van Damme movie ("Sudden Death") or a Rob Lowe movie ("Youngblood")...enough said. The one hockey movie that made it somewhat big was "Slap Shot", starring Paul Newman. The surprisingly detailed plot revolves around Newman's character Reg Dunlop, an middle-aged player whose mind is sharper than his skates.

The movie covers many aspects of minor league hockey life...the long boring bus trips, cheap hotels in nowhere towns, ridiculous promotions by the GM, time away from the wife, and the sometimes utter pointlessness of continuing this type of life.
Combined with this somewhat somber backdrop is a series of slapstick hockey games starring the Hanson brothers, cheap imports from a goon league. Their, ahem, spirited play gets the fans in depressed Charleston on their feet. Coach Dunlop goes on a PR frenzy, trying to impress the unknown owner of the team to sell the squad rather than fold. The result is utter chaos. The team and people surrounding it get more out of control until the climactic battle with archrival Syracuse for the championship.

The film also tries to address the issue of hockey fights as entertainment, and while the fight scenes are cartoonish, some of the pontificating towards the end gets to be a bit much. The trophy presentation is interesting, however......

The movie does seem a bit dated, but you can have fun mocking the mid-70's fashion that is plastered all over this film. Try to keep the little ones out of the room....it has enough curses to rival the South Park movie.

To sum it up, I enjoyed Slap Shot for it's funny script, developed characters and better-than-average sports movie plot.