The Couch Potato Report – Special Edition for Hockey Day In Canada
This week in a Special Edition of The Couch Potato Report – since it is Hockey Day In Canada - I’ll take a look at some movies that include hockey.
Sports movies are a dime a dozen. Good sports movies are a bit harder to find. A good movie about hockey is literally one in a million.
Unlike baseball, football, and many other North American sports, Hollywood has virtually ignored the great game of hockey. When they have bothered to make a hockey movie, they haven’t really scored. In fact, with the exception of two movies, we hockey fans have been shut out at the movies.
Instead of spending this time talking about the many bad films that have been made about hockey, I’m going to cover some films that aren’t about hockey, but have hockey in them.
For all of you Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves fans I am sorry to report that I won’t be speaking about YOUNGBLOOD, even though this 1986 flick is mildly entertaining.
You also won’t hear me utter a word about THE MIGHTY DUCKS. One, two or three. Yes, Disney did score a major box office hit with this sad-sack team of hockey playing kids, but hockey was just the backdrop. It could have been any sport, like baseball.
No, wait, they already made a baseball film about that very same subject. It was released in 1976 and was called THE BAD NEWS BEARS.
So with two exceptions, which I’ll get to in a minute, let me reference two movies that aren’t about hockey, but have hockey in them.
I’ll start with WAYNE’S WORLD.
In this 1992 gem film Mike Myers and Dana Carvey are Wayne and Garth – two teens who live at home and have their own low-rent cable-access show in which they celebrate their favorite female movie stars and heavy-metal bands.
While it was based in a suburb of Chicago, it was actually based on Myers personal experiences growing up in a suburb of Toronto.
A suburb where they played road hockey. I ask you: What’s more Canadian that playing road hockey and having to stop for a car?
No WAYNE’S WORLD isn’t about hockey, but it’s a better movie because it includes it.
Another great film that includes hockey is actually my favourite film of all time. The picture is called STRANGE BREW and it is the one and only cinematic adventure of SCTV’s BOB & DOUG McKENZIE – two of the most iconic Canadians of all time.
In a nutshell STRANGE BREW is actually a well-sustained parody of Shakepeare’s HAMLET, with a little hockey thrown in on the side.
Since it isn’t a real game of hockey, but merely an attempt to control the world through beer, I guess including STRANGE BREW is a bit of a stretch, but as it ponders on the video and DVD package for the film: What matters most in life, eh? Hockey, donuts and beer.
Aren’t those things synonymous with Canadians? And isn’t it hockey day in Canada?
Okay, before I get too far off topic, let’s drop the puck on this edition of The Couch Potato Report and let me tell you about two movies that not only have hockey in them, but are actually hockey movies.
MYSTERY, ALSAKA stars a pre-superstar Russell Crowe who is a small-town Sherriff and a player during the weekly game. The people in mystery love hockey. Their lives revolve around it. As a publicity stunt the NHL’s New York Rangers propose to visit Mystery for a game.
If you haven’t seen MYSTERY, ALASKA I don’t want to say anything else as you should experience this wonderful little film without knowing too much about it. Especially the ending and the Don Cherry type commentator who appears in the middle of the film.
MYSTERY, ALASKA is a great hockey movie, but any conversation about the best hockey movie of all time has to begin and end with a slap shot.
It’s not even close, the definitive hockey film is SLAP SHOT.
Paul Newman and his Butch Cassidy director, George Roy Hill, made a very original comedy in this 1977 story of an over-the-hill player/coach for a lousy hockey team who gets results when he teaches his players to get dirty.
SLAP SHOT itself is dirty. It might be one of the most hilariously profane movies ever to come out of Hollywood.
It certainly is one of the most hilarious films that Hollywood has ever made.
WAYNE’S WORLD, STRANGE BREW, MYSTERY, ALASKA and SLAP SHOT are available on DVD at a store near you.
COMING NEXT WEEK
SPY KIDS 3-D: GAME OVER - This is the third (and reported final) installment in the very entertaining series.
MATCHSTICK MEN - Nicolas Cage and Sam Rockwell star in this picture about con men.
THE MISSING - Ron Howard followed up his Oscar winning turn in A BEAUTIFUL MIND with this forgettable pseudo western. In it a daughter and father team up to find a missing girl. (Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett, Simon Baker)
PIECES OF APRIL - A young woman tries to bring her family together for Thanksgiving. (Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson, Oliver Platt).
Enjoy the movies and I’ll see you back here next week on The Couch.
Television Academy Shakes Up Emmy Rules
LOS ANGELES - The television academy is shaking up Emmy rules to try to freshen a competition that sees the same shows winning trophies year after year.
As part of changes approved this week by the academy's Board of Governors, members will have the opportunity to choose up to 10 nominees per category — double the current five.
The top five vote-getters will end up as the nominees in each category, keeping the number of contenders the same as it has been traditionally.
But the mix should be more representative of the growing bounty of programming on cable and newer broadcast channels, academy spokeswoman Pam Ruben Golum said Friday.
"This gives the approximately 12,000 academy members a chance to expand the field of nominees," she said.
Unlike the Academy Awards, which recognize a new crop of films each year, the Emmys fall into rerun territory because shows are eligible as long as they air original episodes in the Emmy calendar year.
The result has been winning streaks like that of NBC's White House drama "The West Wing," named best drama series for the last three consecutive ceremonies.
It makes for impressive records but predictable shows. Observers have also complained that less mainstream fare, such as UPN's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," are routinely shut out of major awards.
The modification, one of several approved by the board Wednesday, comes under new Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Chairman Dick Askin.
"Our awards rules and procedures have remained virtually unchanged over the last ten years," Askin said, adding that the approach will be "more representative of television as it is today."
Among other changes, the board also altered how many episodes must be submitted in the drama and comedy series categories. More episodes, six rather than three, must be included as an original submission seeking nomination; for the final round of judging to determine winners, voters will consider six rather than the previous eight episodes.
The new rules will be in effect when academy members vote on the 2004 prime-time Emmy, to be held Sept. 19 and air on ABC. Nominations will be announced July 15.
Weekend Movies: Four Films to Split Box Office
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollywood's major studios released four films nationwide on Friday, hoping to grab a slice of the box office pie ahead of next week's widely anticipated release, "The Passion of the Christ."
The movies vary widely from mainstream fare in "Welcome to Mooseport," featuring TV star Ray Romano, to college-age comedy "Eurotrip," teen flick "Confessions of a Drama Queen" and boxing drama "Against the Ropes" with Meg Ryan.
Because they are aimed at different audiences, the four will likely splinter the box office take from moviegoers looking for new films. As a result, the four will find it hard to compete with reigning box office champ, "50 First Dates," because even if its sales drop an acceptable 40 to 50 percent from last week's three-day total of $40 million, "Dates" would ring up $20 million or more -- a hefty weekend sum in February.
Still, it is the business of movie studios have to crank out new films, and none in this weekend's mix are budget-busters with big time special effects, elaborate settings or a cast that is full of expensive stars.
Twentieth Century Fox's "Welcome to Mooseport" is the widest new release in just under 2900 theaters, and seeks to take advantage of election year politics with a story of a former U.S. president (Gene Hackman) who runs for mayor of the small town of Mooseport, Maine.
His campaign heats up when local handyman and all-around good guy, Handy Harrison (Romano), runs against him. The race get even stickier when Handy's girlfriend (Maura Tierney) fakes a crush on the ex-president to coax Handy into proposing. The movie is rated PG-13 for brief sexual comments and nudity.
LONG, STRANGE TRIPS
DreamWorks SKG rolls out "Eurotrip" and Walt Disney Pictures ushers in "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen," both in around 2500 theaters.
"Eurotrip" comes from the same producing team as 2000's "Road Trip" and 2003's "Old School," both hits with college kids thinking about sex, drinking, sex, and more drinking.
The main cast is relatively unknown except for Michelle Trachtenberg, star of TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." She plays one-half of a pair of twins on a trek to Berlin with two guy friends led by Scotty.
After a long e-mail relationship with a German girl named Mieke, Scotty thinks he may be in love and must find out for sure. He and his friends head for Berlin, taking audiences for a romp through London, Paris and Amsterdam. "Eurotrip" is rated R for sexuality, nudity, language, drug and alcohol content.
"Drama Queen" features 17-year-old Lindsay Lohan, who has starred in two previous Disney movies, 1998's "The Parent Trap" and last year's surprise summer hit "Freaky Friday."
In "Drama Queen," Lohan plays 15-year-old Lola whose mom uproots her from their fashionable Manhattan apartment and moves them to the stodgy suburbs of New Jersey.
Lola clashes with the most popular girl in high school, Carla, which is a big problem because Carla's dad is the lawyer for the rock band Sidarthur.
Lola and her best friend Ella idolize Sidarthur, and the movie follows their antics as they rival Carla to see who can get into the after-party for a Sidarthur concert. The movie is rated PG for mild thematic elements and brief language.
Paramount Pictures' "Against the Ropes" debuts in 1600 theaters, and is based on the true story of Jackie Kallen (Meg Ryan), who overcomes sexism in professional boxing to become a successful manager of fighters. It is rated PG-13 for crude language, violence, brief sensuality and some drug material.