Slap Shot

Rating:
Summary: A must see for true hockey fans
Review: This comedy about a minor league hockey team set in the 1970's is a must see for any hockey fan. Between the on-ice scenes, the Hanson Brothers, those 70's clothes, and all the one-liners, you will be laughing throughout. A movie I've enjoyed over and over again.

Rating:
Summary: Movie content ruined by phoney soundtrack
Review: The movie "Slapshot" is an absolute classic, and whether or not he will admit it, one of Paul Newman's best appearances. However, the video release has replaced an excellent music soundtrack with some phoney set of songs made up to somewhat resemble the original rock oldies music that was such an intergral part of the movie. After numerous inquiries, I have been unable to find out why such a thing was done, or how to get an original copy of the movie.

Even with this serious flaw, "Slapshot" is still well worth seeing over and over, and in its original form would be nothing less than "5 stars".

Rating:
Summary: HAT TRICK.
Review: Many were amazed that SLAP SHOT was written by a woman when it was released in 1977. More amazing was that Nancy Dowd's original screenplay was robbed of an Oscar nomination in 1977. Dowd got the feel of the game and the players as perfect as the paint on the blue lines (her brother Ned Dowd plays the infamous Oggie Ogelthorpe in a nano-second cameo that has reverbs throughout the film). George Roy Hill works his A-list players, Newman, Strother Martin and the now heralded Hanson Brothers, into sports (not just sports films) legends. SLAP SHOT is a winner.

Rating:
Summary: Slap Shot Shoots & Scores
Review: Paul Newman & George Roy Hill had teamed together to make such movie classics like The Sting & Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid prior to making this film. Their previous efforts as mentioned had been mostly westerns and period pieces, so it seemed a bit unlikely that they would make a comedy about a struggling minor league hockey team. Just like with their other efforts, Slap Shot is a winner. Mr. Newman is at his charming likable best as an over-the-hill player/coach of the beleaguered Charleston Chiefs. The team is drawing no one and the owner is going to fold the team up. He devises a scheme in which he tells the team that they being sold and moving to Florida if they start winning. In order to win, he encourages his team to goon it up and fight their way to the title. Michael Ontkean is good as the one player who has talent and doesn't agree with the new style and Lindsay Crouse is funny as his drunkard wife who splits from him due to being depressed by the surroundings. The team is made up of misfits and loser and the three bespecaled Hanson Brothers particularly stand out. Slap Shot is one of the best sports movies ever made and certainly one of the funniest.

Rating:
Summary: Maybe the greatest sports movie ever
Review: Ask hardcore hockey fans (the kind that are familiar with the Montreal Maroons or that understand that present-day hockey is virtually figure-skating compared to the seventies) what their favorite sports movie is, or ask hockey pros what their favorite sports movie is; probably more than half the time, you'll hear "Slap Shot". Some "serious" sports films suffer from self-importance or a lack of realism; try watching a good war documentary for actual life-and-death situations. Thankfully, "Slap Shot" doesn't take itself terribly seriously yet still manages to paint an accurate, believable picture.

Sure, the humor is rude and crude, but necessary to paint a somewhat accurate picture of `70's minor league hockey (surely these guys weren't discussing Plato or speaking in blue-blood accents). It may be offensive to uninitiated people (e.g. people who don't watch hockey or team sports in general), but the humor is oft-hilarious for hockey fans.

Paul Newman plays crafty, alternately obnoxious and charming player-coach Reg Dunlop, leader of the mediocre minor league Charlestown Chiefs (though in reality the movie was filmed in Johnstown, PA). Fearful that the team is going to fold (now that the big mill in town is closing), Reg concocts a scheme in which he'll find a way to make the team better and profitable in the hopes that the yet-unknown owner will opt to sell the team rather than disband it.

What eventually generates interest and success in the team is their change to a rough-and-tumble style of play, mercilessly beating on opponents (a la the typical style of play for many `70's teams), largely thanks to the infusion of the three Hanson brothers (who in real life actually were minor-league bruisers), who also provide much of the humor in the film. Michael Ontkean plays Ned Braden, the Ivy Leaguer who is a skilled scorer and naturally is unhappy with the fight-first direction of the team. His dysfunctional relationship with his young alcoholic wife serves as a subplot and also reminds Reg of his own unhappy marriage, largely due to his hockey life.

The film is full of fantastically funny moments: Reg's disbelief upon seeing the Hanson's for the first time ("They brought their f**kin' toys with `em!"), the players being forced to do a fashion show that goes awry when one of the players strips, the great Strother Martin as the cheapskate conniving general manager, the French-Canadian goaltender having hallucinations after being pummeled with shots, the Hansons starting a fight before the national anthem even starts, etc.

This is definitely one of the best sports films ever made (both in terms of comedy, and strangely, realism); don't expect anything highbrow, though, "THIS IS HOCKEY!" as the Chiefs rug-adorned announcer yells as the Chiefs are mercilessly pummeling their opponents.


Rating:
Summary: Sports Film Classic
Review: Riotously funny film about a minor-league hockey team that turns it's fortunes around when it gives the people the ultraviolence it wants. Paul Newman in a departure for him plays the profane player-coach of the team. Film is augmented by the prescence of the goofily roughneck Hansen brothers, players so dirty that the cops are waiting for them outside the locker-room after every game. Film was notorious in it's day for it's liberal use of the "F" word(I think they counted 129 uses) that has since been supplanted by three times by "Scarface". Film made a real commentary on the state of professional hockey when it came out because violence was considered a real problem in the sport in 1977. Film really hit close to home in Philadelphia because our team, The Flyers, had the monicker "The Broad Street Bullies" and wore that title proudly. On a final note I'd like to note the presence of one of my favorite character actors, Strother Martin, who plays the team owner.

Rating:
Summary: awsome, and now i understand why...
Review: it truly is considered one of the greatest sports movies of all time. LOL!!!

Slap Shot is about the Charleston Chiefs of the American Federal Hockey League, a minor league Hockey system. The Chiefs are in financial debt and rumors are that the team is about to be sold, attendence is bad, and the mill is about to close for good.

so Paul Newman, coach/player comes up with the perfect way to draw people and interest in the team, put on a show. He starts by saying things about one of the goalies wife, and this leads to the first awsome brawl of the game.

with the addition of the Hanson brothers, the movie gets awsome. the hanson brothers play so brutal, you'd be glad they were on your team. they hit, hook, spear, slash, and beat the crap out of opposing teams, which starts to lead to a fan following and a booster club.

Newman turns one of the soft spoken players into Killer, a blood mess like one of the fellas called him. he puts a bounty on the opposing coach, and starts a rumor that the team is about to be bought out by a florida retirement group.

they make it all the way to the title game, and then that's where i really don't understand it. they get into a huge fight, and the one guy that won't fight cause he wants to play it straight, starts to skate around undressing, leading to the opposing team hitting the ref getting disqualified. i don't really understand that whole part, but other than that, the movie is awsome.

it really captures the realness that these minor league hockey teams go through, like helping out with fashion shows.

Slap Shot is a great movie, i hope they another hockey movie in the near future as great as slap shot.

Rating:
Summary: Stupid Stupid Stupid
Review: I heard it was the best movie ever. But I couldn't find any redeeming qualities in it. The movie was shoddily thrown together with some displays of Paul Newman's million dollar smile, juvenilistic flashes of the "Moon", bad fight scenes, and some one-liners attempting to be humorous. There wasn't enough good Hockey in this movie. This is definitely not a movie for the kids. For some reason, they decided to throw in a One Night Stand. I liked the Hanson Brothers. I'll give it that. This movie might have stood a chance if it was better written and only about the Hanson Brothers.

Rating:
Summary: Hey, Hanerhan! Hanerhan!
Review: It's hard for me to imagine why this movie is never on TV. Slap Shot has to be one of the funniest movies of all time. It set the bar for other movies like Major League where you get a cast of the weirdest players, staff, and fans available, and let them beat the crap out of each other.
This is not a movie fit for vigin ears. The amount of language is probably why the movie never appears on TV. Whole scenes would just be empty dialogue or crummy voice overs. It needs to be seen unedited to get its best effect.
There's not a lot I can tell you without getting this review yanked from the site for bad language. I will say that the Hanson Brothers are one of the funniest group of characters I've seen in any movie (Hey Coach, want some foil?) Watch for the great shift in hockey scene.
The violence is staggering in this movie and the authentic hockey action is amazing. Its great to see hockey played with no helmets and we see how brutal that could get. Even the fights seem authentic. This is the premier hockey movie of all time. All kneel before Slap Shot.

Rating:
Summary: Hockey team revamped, and reorganized, in such a strange way
Review: When a hockey team is almost down and out the coach/player, played by Paul Newman, decides it's time for some reinvigoration, at least for this, their last, season. When it comes to a lousy bunch of hockey players there is no better example then Newman's rabble. Their jobs are going out the door, with the closing of a mill, and no one has a future. Therefore, Newman makes one, a new rougher image. With the addition of three new "nerd-like" brothers off the ice, and killers on the ice, the team starts winning. Yet, not all like how, and Newman's ideals and tactics on and off the ice are being questioned.

Now, I think this movie is ok and only that, and not because of the hockey. Instead, it is Newman's Othello like confliction that makes the movie interesting. While the walls of despair fall around him, he still keeps them up for his players to have hope. Is it right to fall lower if you can build other's up if only for an instant? This theme is an interesting one, and that is the theme of the film that I like.

The problem is that, in the telling of this theme, the movie just is not interesting. Like I said, there is no real excitement in the hockey games. The humor is lacking, and when it is there just plain crude. In fact, besides the theme there are no ascertainably good qualities. Therefore, instead of the inspiring, or controversial, movie it could have been, this film stands at a three out of five star rating. The movie is saved only a little by the theme.