Slap Shot is a cult film in French Canada thanks to a Quebec dub that is highly colorful and quotable. It's not quite that in English, so we're left with a film that feels unfinished. It's got something to say, but never puts a button on it. So the factories are going to close and turn this Rust Belt city into a ghost town, which seems real important in the beginning, but everyone is really too selfish to care about anyone but themselves. If it's thematically connected to Paul Newman's midlife crisis as an over-the-hill hockey coach/player, there's no real commentary there. The romance subplots don't really go anywhere, either being left open-ended, or getting fixed too easily. Where did the Hanson Brothers come from? And though I get that, like Goon, the film is more about fighting on the ice than it is about playing hockey, there's far too little of the latter to keep me interested in the sports story. The last exhibition (can't really call it a game) gets the satire right, contrasting sex and violence in the public eye, but it's tagged on. There was no indication this was what the film was really about in the first two acts. Something of a disappointment from the director/actor team that brought us Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Sting.
Wow! That was something totally different from what i expected from an american movie about sports. A hilarious, sometimes dark comedy against all genre clichés, working with themes you won't see in any other Hollywood sports movie: Unemployment, Brutality in Sports, Sex and bad language. Now i see why it's considered a cult classic today and why it's for ages 16 and up here in germany. Highly recommended!
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Siskoid
Slap Shot is a cult film in French Canada thanks to a Quebec dub that is highly colorful and quotable. It's not quite that in English, so we're left with a film that feels unfinished. It's got something to say, but never puts a button on it. So the factories are going to close and turn this Rust Belt city into a ghost town, which seems real important in the beginning, but everyone is really too selfish to care about anyone but themselves. If it's thematically connected to Paul Newman's midlife crisis as an over-the-hill hockey coach/player, there's no real commentary there. The romance subplots don't really go anywhere, either being left open-ended, or getting fixed too easily. Where did the Hanson Brothers come from? And though I get that, like Goon, the film is more about fighting on the ice than it is about playing hockey, there's far too little of the latter to keep me interested in the sports story. The last exhibition (can't really call it a game) gets the satire right, contrasting sex and violence in the public eye, but it's tagged on. There was no indication this was what the film was really about in the first two acts. Something of a disappointment from the director/actor team that brought us Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Sting.Warrison
fun movie. i think you have to be a hockey player/supporter to fully appreciate it. I am neither of those and still enjoyed it.not to mention the awesome soundtrack!!
themini
Ugh, what a boring movie!AfterTheParade
Wow! That was something totally different from what i expected from an american movie about sports. A hilarious, sometimes dark comedy against all genre clichés, working with themes you won't see in any other Hollywood sports movie: Unemployment, Brutality in Sports, Sex and bad language. Now i see why it's considered a cult classic today and why it's for ages 16 and up here in germany. Highly recommended!