Mystery, Alaska

Rating:
Summary: Excellent character-driven movie
Review: I love hockey, and I love David E. Kelley, so it's no great surprise that I also loved "Mystery, Alaska." Russell Crowe, Hank Azaria, Colm Meaney, Ron Eldard, and Kevin Durand all turn in convincing, heart-warming performances, and the setting (in Banff) is just spectacular.

The story takes places in the fictional town of Mystery, deep in Alaska's mountains. It's incredibly cold there, and the town's favorite pasttime is hockey. The Mystery boys are undefeated on pond ice, and the Saturday game is a huge deal for the little burg. Hank Azaria's character had left Mystery to pursue a writing career, and made the town famous with an article in "Sports Illustrated," which caught the eye of NHL bigwigs. The bigwigs signed the New York Rangers, one of the NHL's long-standing great teams, to come up and play an exhibition game against the Mystery team.

The results of that decision are what drives this movie, and in the end, winning or losing the game itself isn't what's important. It's a story about communities, relationships, and the strong bonds between teammates. Don't let this fool you into thinking it's a chick flick, tho; it's a movie that men and women alike will enjoy. There are laugh-out-loud moments, and lot of big grin moments, and a few very heart-touching ones as well, but nothing overly-sappy.

The DVD extra features are sadly lacking, though, the only one of interest being an exceedingly brief behind-the-scenes featurette, which has a few moments of interest, but generally doesn't have anything overwhelming to offer. I would have loved to have seen some outtakes of skating mishaps and cut-ups. Alas.

I really recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys strong character performances and films such as "Doc Hollywood," which offer an insight into the life of tiny towns.

Rating:
Summary: For Love of the Game
Review: This movie should have been named "For Love of the Game", because it's about a town's love for the game of hockey and the "Saturday Game."
It takes place in a small town called Mystery, Alaska, which is surrounded by piles of snow and mountains. It's a "Hockey Town" who's entire focus is around skating and hockey. There is a hockey game played every Saturday by the ten best hockey players in town. The players are chosen by a committee which presides over the game.
The story centers around John Biebe (Russell Crowe), who gives an awarding performance as an aging hockey player who just happens to be the town's sheriff.
The conflict starts when John is described in an article featured in Sports Illustrated, as a great passer, being slow of foot and the only player without lightening speed. The article is written by the town's outcast Charlie Danner (Hank Azaria) who also happens to be his wife Donna's old boyfriend. He is suddenly dropped from the Saturday game and replaced with a young kid.
Due to the article, Charlie flies in to town baring the news that there is interest from the New York Rangers who want to play the team from Mystery, Alaska. The townspeople hold a meeting and agree to play the N. Y. Rangers. Emotions run high when as a result John is asked to coach instead of play. He also begins to get jealous when he sees his wife with Charlie.
You have to watch thhis movie to see what transpires from all of this emotion.
If you enjoy hockey you're in for some excitement as you watch the Mystery team get ready to play the N. Y. Rangers. This movie will make you want to stand up and boo the Rangers!! You get action, comedy and a little romance all rolled up into one.

Rating:
Summary: A Movie With a Heart As Big As All Outdoors
Review: If you're interested in this movie, it's probably because it stars Russell Crowe. But if you thought that was the only reason to see this film, have I got some good news for you.

Mystery, Alaska, population 633, is a town obsessed with hockey. From the time they're children, every Mystery boy's dream is to be a member of the town's unnamed hockey team in the weekly "Saturday game." Through a sequence of events only slightly farfetched, the Mystery team is scheduled for an exhibitition game with the visiting New York Rangers, an event of only slightly less importance to this hockey-struck town than the Second Coming. One of the many great things about this movie is the town's reaction to news of the impending game. They're not awestruck by the Rangers, the visiting demi-gods; their first reaction is, "Can we win?" If Mystery plays, they intend to win. The Rangers might be big league American hockey, but Mystery has faith in its boys. It knows they're great even if the rest of the world doesn't.

The movie is about how the town and its inhabitants are affected by the upcoming game. The game itself, though perfectly realized in the film, is almost incidental. Colm Meaney (late of Star Trek: The Next Generattion and Deep Space Nine) plays the town mayor who discovers his wife (Lolita Davidovich) is sleeping with a member of the hockey team. Hank Azaria is Charles Danner, the home town boy who was never respected growing up, became a reporter out in the great big world, brings back to Mystery the NEW YORK RANGERS....and finds he's still not respected. Donna Biebe (Mary McCormack) is the girl Charles loved in high school, now married to team captain and town sheriff John Biebe (Crowe). Burt Reynolds, who still has it, and in spades, after all these years, plays town judge Walter Burns. Walter as a young man wasn't good enough for the Saturday game, a fact he's never forgotten and a source of conflict with his son, who's made the current team. But Walter was good enough for minor league hockey in the lower 48, making him the perfect choice to coach the team for and through the big game. He's the only person in town who really understands North American hockey. For his own reasons, he refuses.

Then there's Russell Crowe as John Biebe. The big game comes at the tail end of John's career. After 13 years in the Saturday game - a Mystery record - he's cut from the team just before news of the Rangers' visit hits town. And the town fathers, whose most solemn duties involve administering the hockey team, don't want him back. A man of quiet strength but not good at expressing his softer emotions, John doesn't know how to tell his wife how much he loves her when he sees Charles flirting, and her flirting back. The way he figures out finally to do that is both inventive and touching.

Though this movie "stars" Russell Crowe, it's not a star driven vehicle, it's an ensemble piece. And while Russell is wonderful as John Biebe, for my money the best performance in the film is Ron Eldard as "Skank" Marden, Mystery hockey player and dedicated fornicator. The scene where Skank appears on the mayor's doorstep one frozen night to apologize to the man he's cuckolded is, I think, the highlight of the film. It's fascinating to watch the unexpected decency, sensitivity, and dignity emerge from what til then seemed an indecent, shallow, undignified man.

The hockey game footage is convincing - thrilling, actually. Russell learned to ice skate for this role, and, with the help of some careful editing, looks pretty darn good on the ice. Numerous Rangers play themselves.

Mystery, Alaska has been called "Rocky On Ice" and that's a fair description. Yes, the film deals with a hockey game, but that's not what makes it special. This isn't a dumb, gimmicky, braindead hockey flick like The Mighty Ducks. It's a character driven, imaginative, well-acted drama....that happens to work within the framework of a story about a hockey game. By the time the Rangers arrive in Mystery you're totally on the home team's side, rooting for them because you've come to care for the Mystery boys, and respect the sacrifices they, and the town as a whole, have made for this game. Like Rocky, Mystery, Alaska shows you don't need a huge budget to make a good movie when you have a great script, solid direction, good actors, and the film possesses that quality indefinable but impossible to mistake or ignore: "heart."

So, can a team of pond hockey players from Mystery, Alaska REALLY beat the New York Rangers? Watch this movie and find out.

Rating:
Summary: Mystery, Alaska is the place to be!
Review: This charming film didn't get the positive praise it deserved. It was absolutely wonderful. The small Alaskan town of "Mystery" has a quirky "Northern Exposure" feel to it, and a wonderful ensemble cast add a lot of fun and games.

The "Saturday" hockey game leads off this fairy-tale story of David vs. Goliath, as their hometown boys go against the NHL'S New York Rangers. Former "townie" Hank Azaria starts this whole thing by writing a spotlight on the "Saturday Game" for Sports Illustrated and well.. Mystery is never the same after that. Russell Crowe turns in a great performance as "slightly older" town Sherif John Biebe, who is the heart and soul of the much younger hockey team. There are many wonderful smaller performances by faces you'll certainly know and love. It's a wonderfully sweet, charming and funny (with classic one liners from MANY of the young players) movie that only HAPPENS to be about hockey. There is so much more to it. You don't have to know a thing about hockey to appreciate this fun and lighthearted movie. It's right up there with my all-time favs. Definatley worth a look!

Rating:
Summary: The Best Movie You Never Heard Of
Review: "Mystery, Alaska" is probably the best movie you never heard of. For starters, its cast is incredible: Russell Crowe, Hank Azaria, Colm Meany and Burt Reynolds (to name a few) appear, and the acting is as good as the cast would make you hope.

On top of that, the story is really very good, and the script is expertly written; the movie tells the tale of a small town (Mystery, Alaska), where the central fact of life is the game of hockey. This obsession manifests itself in an event called the Saturday Game, where the town's hockey team plays teams from neighboring towns on a frozen over pond in astonishingly cold weather. But the game, and the town that depends on it for its common bond, becomes strangely manipulated by a turn of events that proposes that Mystery's team play the New York Rangers a game of hockey on the small town pond.

You don't have to be a hockey fan, or even a sports fan, to appreciate this movie. The life of this small community is magnificently portrayed, and the story promises something for everyone: drama, comedy, sports, you name it. I heard about this movie from a friend, or I never would have known it existed. After renting it, my wife and I liked it enough to go buy it, and everyone we've shown it to has loved it. I can unconditionally recommend it. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: For Love of the Game
Review: This movie should have been named "For Love of the Game", because it's about a town's love for the game of hockey and the "Saturday Game."
It takes place in a small town called Mystery, Alaska, which is surrounded by piles of snow and mountains. It's a "Hockey Town" who's entire focus is around skating and hockey. There is a hockey game played every Saturday by the ten best hockey players in town. The players are chosen by a committee which presides over the game.
The story centers around John Biebe (Russell Crowe), who gives an awarding performance as an aging hockey player who just happens to be the town's sheriff.
The conflict starts when John is described in an article featured in Sports Illustrated, as a great passer, being slow of foot and the only player without lightening speed. The article is written by the town's outcast Charlie Danner (Hank Azaria) who also happens to be his wife Donna's old boyfriend. He is suddenly dropped from the Saturday game and replaced with a young kid.
Due to the article, Charlie flies in to town baring the news that there is interest from the New York Rangers who want to play the team from Mystery, Alaska. The townspeople hold a meeting and agree to play the N. Y. Rangers. Emotions run high when as a result John is asked to coach instead of play. He also begins to get jealous when he sees his wife with Charlie.
You have to watch thhis movie to see what transpires from all of this emotion.
If you enjoy hockey you're in for some excitement as you watch the Mystery team get ready to play the N. Y. Rangers. This movie will make you want to stand up and boo the Rangers!! You get action, comedy and a little romance all rolled up into one.

Rating:
Summary: The movie itself is 5 stars
Review: This is a great movie. No 100 million dollar budgets and wowee special effects. Just good writing and great characters. Oh yeah, and hockey. I love hockey. I think it's the sport of the gods. And I went to see this in the theaters because it featured hockey. But now I watch it because it's a great movie. and it would be a great movie no matter what sport it dealt with (even basketball, yuck!).

It star s apre-Gladiator Russel Crowe who is the town Sherriff and player during the Saturday Game. The people in mystery love hockey. Their lives revolve around it. Colm Meany plays the town mayor who is for all intents-and-purposes, the general manager of the "team". Hank Azaria plays the town prodigal son who left town for the bright lights and big city of New York and returns promising a game against the New York Rangers as a publicity stunt.

Admist all the fervor of playing against an NHL team on live TV, Burt Reynolds plays the towns Judge, who cautions them to think it through before agreeing to play a professional team.

Eventually we get to see the game, and it was nice to see them not end it with a total "feel-good" ending. You can probably guess what I mean by that, but you should buy or rent it anyway.

I only gave the DVD 4 stars because the DVD was woefully short on extras. Only the usual we have come to expect... commentary tracks and a very short "making of..." filmette. Still, it's a great buy.

Rating:
Summary: Slapshot Meets Bad News Bears Meets Our Town Meets Fargo
Review: "Mystery, Alaska" juggles quite a few cliches, but it does so with wonderful charm and a constant nudge in the ribs.

A small town in the frozen North of Alaska, Mystery loves its hockey beyond all reason. The famed "Saturday Game," played each week with religious fervor, has been brought to the pages of Sports Illustrated by a Mysterian (Hank Azaria) who has left the town for bigger and better things -- although it may be because everyone in town says he plays hockey "like a homosexual" (this is an example of the surprisingly frank and profane language Mysterians like to use, which can be jarring in what is otherwise a sweet movie).

The team, led by John Biebe (Russell Crowe in a nice understated performance), is your typical bunch of loveable small-town lugs, each given either one defining characteristic (babe hound, son struggling with sense of inadequacy, hot young prodigy nervous about playing with the "big boys," etc.) or is mere entertaining window dressing. Otherwise content with the local fame brought by playing in the Saturday game, the guys are exhilirated and terrified to learn that the NHL wants the New York Rangers (at the time, a good team!) to visit Mystery to play the locals as a publicity stunt.

Biebe, who is also the town sheriff, is our lens into this quirky town going through this tumultuous development. A fixture of the Saturday Game for years, he is surprisingly demoted and asked to coach. One of his best players 'accidentally' shoots a representative from Price World, a Wal-Mart clone. Another player cuckolds the mayor of the town. And Azaria returns to make overtures to Biebe's wife. The tranquil little burg has never seen such excitement.

All of this unfolds in a lighthearted manner and builds to the "big game" against the Rangers -- which is only brought about by the untimely demise of a lovable local resident.

The game is handled very well, with the proper "underdog" notes played, but not overly so. The hockey action flows quickly, and feels like a game rather than someone filming a pretend game (a common problem in sports movies -- the action is not realistic enough). One problem - we rarely see Russell Crowe actually skate, which undercuts his status as the team leader and reminds us that he's a Hollywood star in a hockey film.

Perhaps the movie's most inspired moment is the mayor's unique way of invoking Mystery's home-ice advantage during the national anthem (with a hilarious cameo by Little Richard - yes, you heard me). Watch also for a great cameo by Mike Meyers, who has worked with director Jay Roach on the Austin Powers films.

In the end, all loose ends are tied up nicely . . . and perhaps too conveniently for some. Nothing in the movie is a great shock, but that's life in a small town for you.

While in many respects a good family movie, the language and humor is definitely not for younger viewers. And the "romantic" overtures of Skank, the team horn-dog, can be quite shocking to some. Still, a good movie and a fun time.

Rating:
Summary: One of Russell's Best
Review: I loved this movie. It was one of my first Russell Crowe movies. I am not a sports fan but even if you are not you can enjoy this movie. The romance and humor that flows through it, is wonderful.

Rating:
Summary: more then just hockey
Review: this movie is a story of more then just hockey its a story of life in a small town where the people only have a few escapes. This movie tells the ups and downs of this small town of Mystery and how a game against the Rangers changes their world. If your into hockey you'll love this movie if you are not you'll still like it. Rachel Wilson (Burt Reynolds daughter in the movie) is HOT.