WARNING: Film clip contains adult language!
Slap Shot (1977)
Bottomline: I think you might have to really love hockey in order to like this movie.
Want to see a better sports movie? It doesn't get any better than Hoosiers (1986)
Want to see a better hockey movie? Miracle (2004)
QMR Opinion: Every time I've seen a list of the best sports movies, this movie appears on it almost every time. Thanks to Netflix, I had an opportunity to watch this movie for the first time not too long ago and my thinking is that this film appears on those lists because it's one of the few that deal with the sport of hockey.
Released in the late '70s, this film suffers from so much bad acting that it is almost laughable. Lines are read as if someone is standing off camera with a cue card. I think the movie is supposed to be funny, but you find yourself laughing at it -- not with it.
One of the film's claims to fame is that it is incredibly obscene. This is true but the cursing is so frequent and so over the top that it becomes awkward. The film is an excuse for Paul Newman to say the "F" word every 15 minutes.
The direction and editing are awkward and inconsistent. There doesn't seem to be any point to any of it. Newman's scene with the owner of the team toward the end of the film is just horrible and is a microcosm of what's wrong with the whole mess.
Some interesting notes: See if you can spot Swoosie Kurtz. The mom from A Christmas Story (1983), Melinda Dillon, has a nude scene (and that was just creepy for me). Strother Martin is here. M. Emmett Walsh is here. And, yes, this is the movie that introduces us to The Hanson Brothers. Best thing about the movie? The costumes. You just don't get any better than some brownish, leather outfit that Newman wears at least twice.
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