Hockey Hurts

Rating: Null/10 (23 July 2017)

Recruited by an ice hockey team, a bouncer discovers that the game is less about scoring goals and more about bashing the life out of his opponents in this sports comedy from Canada. Seann William Scott provides an earnest turn as the protagonist who has no interest in violence beyond defending others and there is a sweet romantic subplot further humanises him. The film is undermined though by focusing on all the fights that Scott gets into on the ice as opposed to the hockey games. All that ice hockey here seems to involve for Canadians is players clashing into one another and beating each other to pulp -- basically, boxing on ice -- and as someone unfamiliar with the sport, it is baffling how all the fights are championed by referees and considered part of the game. If anything like what occurs here happened in a soccer game, it would be an instant red/yellow card! Put more simply, one's mileage with the film may vary depending on one's familiarity with Canadian ice hockey; for a layman though, this is basically just a film about gory fights on ice. It is not particularly funny either with a gay brother and conservative, adoptive Jewish parents coming off as quirky for the sake of it. Sure, the film has some heart with Scott's gradual rise to fame and desire to be considered a real hockey player when he can barely skate, but this is a hard film to recommend to non-ice hockey fans.