A great spoof of a spoofable sport

Rating: 9/10 (11 September 2000)

Slap Shot is a film that I grew up with. Hard to believe that an adolescent could watch "Slap Shot" over 100 times and grow up to be a mild-mannered schoolteacher who doesn't utter a word of profanity. Slap Shot is a not a family movie...profanity abounds, and the sexual talk is frank and realistic. Paul Newman, who plays lead Reggie Dunlop, taunts an opposing goaltender, with whom he's shared a bed, by bringing up her lesbian sexual encounters with another player's wife. However, while the dialogue is frank, it does ring true. Slap Shot is a classic movie which both highlights, and degrades, the sport which is at the focus of this movie: hockey. Strong supporting performances from Strother Martin and Michael Ontkean, as well as a host of unnamable foreign hockey players, further serve to strengthen this 1977 underappreciated sports classic. Easily one of the ten best sports movies ever made, and definitely the best hockey film ever made (then again, what is the competition, Rob Lowe's low-brow 1980s movie Youngblood?), Slap Shot is definitely worth a viewing...or even a 101st!