1977
M
Contains Violence & Offensive Language.
A cult classic, acclaimed as one of the top ten sport movies ever, this irreverent and outrageously funny look into the world of professional ice hockey has Paul Newman as the coach of the Chiefs, a third-rate, minor league hockey team. To build up attendance at their games, management signs up three odd-looking players whose job it is to literally attack and demolish opposition - to the delight and cheers of a steadily increasing throng of fans.
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Reviewer: Aaron Yap
Date Added: 13 Oct 2008
Aaron's Rating:4.0
Not only is Slap Shot the greatest ice hockey film ever made – it’s one of the best sports comedies period, its influence readily apparent in everything from Bull Durham to Dodgeball. The late Paul Newman is all irreverence and charm as Reg Dunlop, an aging coach whose minor league team Charleston Chiefs is going down the tube when he decides to inject a bit of ultra-violence into the game to win again. Michael Ontkean (Twin Peaks) is the Chiefs player who’d rather play straight, “old-time hockey”. Slap Shot didn’t exactly find love among the critics when it was first released, due to the high-level profanity and violence, but its stature as a top-notch sports flick has grown over the years. It’s a tad long, but boisterous fun all the way, with plenty of amusingly rowdy skirmishes, and great characters (the Hanson brothers!) and character actors (Andrew Duncan, Paul Dooley, Strother Martin). Rousing feelgood ending.
