Monday, October 25, 2010

SCORE: A HOCKEY MUSICAL




Musical

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Noah Reid: 17-year-old Farley Gordon
Olivia Newton-John: his mother Hope
Marc Jordan: his father Edgar
Allie MacDonald: their 17-year-old neighbour Eve
Stephen McHattie: owner of the Brampton Blades hockey team
George Stroumboulopoulos: the rink announcer

REVIEW
Oxymoron –noun
• A figure of speech in which two words with opposing meanings are used together intentionally for effect
• a contradiction in terms.

That best describes this movie about hockey with most of the dialogue presented as a song. But is it any sillier a notion than a musical about two teenage street gangs (West Side Story) or one about a baseball team (Damn Yankees) or one about a cowboy falling in love with a farm girl (Oklahoma ! ) ?

The main difference between these Broadway musicals and SCORE is that they included memorable songs that have become part of our culture; no such luck here. Instead we get to see a corny musical with many songs sung in a droning manner but with very few upbeat numbers.

Between the songs there are the requisite dance numbers as a prelude to the rousing on-ice finale which is rather well done given the limitation the players have, dressed in full gear.

So how does it fit in with others? It’s not the best movie I’ve ever seen and certainly is not the worst. Just somewhere in the middle.

CLASSIFICATION
for crude locker-room humour and some hockey violence.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• The coach tells Farley the game will start at 2 pm but during the pre-game interview the clock shows it to be 4 o’clock.
• While Eve is talking with Farley her sweater on her right shoulder changes location between shots although she never touches it.
• The team owner gets thrown off the tread mill and it stops by itself. In fact that only happens if you press the red stop button otherwise it continues going at the pace set.

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