2.22.2012

HOCKEYTIME™ Film Picks - 2012 Update

HTPC offers its slightly updated 2012 annotated filmography, summarizing some of the amazingly informative and entertaining films the HOCKEYTIME™ Movie Night (HTMN) Curators have screened over the past few years. If you want to skip the hard work of reading the actual books, just rent these movies and you're sure to ace the final exam:

Way of the Puck (tagline: A documentary film about professional air hockey. Really.)
Plot summary: What’s it like to be a champion of a sport hardly anyone has heard of? “Way of the Puck,” a documentary by Tacoma-born filmmaker Eric D. Anderson, follows four air hockey players as they battle each other for world supremacy -- and battle the world to save their beloved sport from extinction.
viewer reactions:  
"Aristotle, Plato, Bodhisattva...a true religious experience!"
"puck-thetic..." 
"World supremacy?"

Mighty Ducks (tagline: They can't skate. They can't win. They can't be serious.) 
viewer reactions:   
"An adrenaline-drenched blast of quack-tacular fun!  Every moment is magic!"
"quack.  Quack.  QUack.  QUAck.  QUACk.  QUACK.  QUACKQUACKQUACKQUACKQUACK!!!!!"
"No, I'm NOT crying!  I just...have something in my eye...."


D2: Mighty Ducks (tagline: The Puck Stops Here)
viewer reactions:
"Listen to how they snore...Just like Chris E!"
"It's knucklepuck time!"
"Hey Goldberg! I bet if that puck was a cheeseburger you'd stop it!!"
"I don't want to spend the rest of my life watching hockey movies in this rinkydink town..."


Miracle  (tagline: What America needed was a miracle. What it got was a hockey game)
viewer reactions:
"So good that I wanted to watch the movie again.  [Whistle.]  And again.  [Whistle.]  And again.  [Whistle.]  And again...."
"I'm Mitch P, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and I play for the United States of America!"
"I had no idea that hockey players were such wholesome young men...."

HTPC says: Even though it's been 27 years since the US Olympic Hockey team delivered the Miracle that America was in such desperate need of, seeing Kurt Russell and the rest of the cast re-create every. single. minute. of the entire. seven. months. of training and preparation that led to the gold medal brought it back to us as if it were just yesterday...We were nearly all in tears.

Mystery, Alaska (tagline: A Small Town on the Outskirts of Greatness)
viewer reactions:



"I went in thinking I was just going to get Burt Reynolds, and got a surprise bonus of Burt Reynolds mindmelding with Sean Connery & Sherlock Holmes! OSCAR! OSCAR!!"
"An eloquent look at the effervescent language of a small town Saturday hockey-league club room."
"Educational?!  Bring the kids to this movie series and they'll be able to cuss like a fisherman, #$%! like a *&@@#, and share all sorts of new things with their classmates (phrases like 'what the puck?' and the real reason not to high stick a guy you like...) - I don't think this stuff will turn up on the WASL."
 


Slapshot (tagline: SlapShot outslaps... outswears... outlaughs...) 
viewer reactions:
"&#($!*F&%#^&#!!"
"why, you oughta !@#*&%#!$#"
"Paul Newman is dreamy..."
"Emma - earmuffs!"

Sudden Death (tagline: They said Game 7 would be a war. They didn't know the 1/2 of it) 
viewer reactions: 
"All I know is if we don't get this global warming fixed, we're gonna feel the effects like a stick upside the head'll knock your front teeth out. These penguins are mad they're comin' after US! Beaks bared, spatulas and steak knives at the ready. 'Sudden Death' is the most eye-opening, dammedest movie I ever saw"
"Buy Sam a drink, and get his dog one too..."
"OH MY GOD, he shot grandma!"
"PLEASE tell me there's a Sudden Death 2!!!"


Tooth Fairy (tagline: you can't handle the Tooth)
HTPC can do no better than The Stranger Slog's review of this one - we have nothing to add (other than to confirm that it does have a hockey theme):
Quick and skinny: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson commits fantasy murder by trying to tell a little girl that there is no tooth fairy, so the magical courts make him do two weeks of tooth fairy duty. If you like tooth wordplay, then boy is this the movie for you. They don't even have to make sense. (“I pledge allegiance to the tooth”) And shouldn't Johnson be acting? Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson played Derek “Tooth Fairy” Thompson. Wow, dunno if I'll be able to suspend my belief for that one...

Youngblood (tagline: After selection for the Canadian Hamilton Mustangs, Dean Youngblood's future looks bright - even his landlady is hot.) 
viewer reactions:
"Thank God there is a sport for middle-sized white boys!"
"He's so pretty!"
"Heaver' was truly a breakout role for Keanu - this work clearly prepared him for inevitable stardom in such classics as Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Point Break".
 

Additional gems:
Happy Gilmore (tagline: He doesn't play golf... he destroys it)
MVP (tagline: Jack skates a little faster... Shoots a little harder... And is driving everyone bananas.) 
The Rocket (tagline: the Gladiator of hockey movies
Score: A Hockey Musical (tagline: A teenage hockey player becomes a national sensation) 
White Lightning (tagline: HOCKEY STAR EXPOSES GAMBLING RACKETEERS!)

2.20.2012

HOCKEYTIME™ Redux

HOCKEYTIME™ began when several East Coasters, having arrived in this far NW outpost with hockeysticks in hand, learned with dismay that our dear Cascadian friends knew less about hockey than they did about lacrosse or soccer! In 2004, they formed the Hockeytime Planning Committee (HTPC) as a grassroots organization devoted to education and outreach around the fascinating world of hockey and the joys of the ice.  
 
HOCKEYTIME™ is now in its 8th extraordinary year, and our influence has grown exponentially...HTPC generally is reluctant to blow its own horn, but how do you think the recent breakthrough for Seattle's NHL future really came about?  Yep, that's right...


Be sure to browse through older posts, and check back for news you can use in advance of the big event.


as always, 
HTPC

2.03.2012

It may have been a warm winter, but...

Jen Graves is spot on with this review...

Save the Date: HOCKEYTIME™ 2012 is nigh upon us

Your devoted HOCKEYTIME™ Planning Committee (HTPC) has once again eliminated democratic process in choosing the date for this year's outing in the name of expediency. For the moment, the bare essentials you need to know:

1) VENUE: Everett Events Center  Yes, it's far to the north...But we love Everett and this point is not negotiable.


2) DATE/TIME: Saturday March 3rd.  7:05 pm.  Everett Silvertips vs. Tri-City Americans

 
3) PRE-GAME GATHERING SPOTS:  Brooklyn Bros. Pizza is a great place for food/beer (kid-friendly, HTPC approved), and HTPC will wander over to Tailgator for a pre-game drink if time allows

 
4) WHAT??: Some of you may have no idea what this is about, clear your calendars nevertheless! All will become clear soon enough...

Until then, love and slapshots from your HTPC -

 
MP, Chair and Legal Counsel
CW, Co-Chair and Speaker
BG, Sr. Advisor
ECN, Film Series Curator