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Marcus_Membrane
Reviews
LAX (2004)
They Should Change the Title to "Flaming Bag of Stupid"
As a pilot, I find this show to be not only ridiculous, but also insulting. I was quite skeptical when I saw the promos for this show, expecting it to be grossly inaccurate and/or downright silly. My skepticism was well founded. Absolutely nothing about this show has the slightest shred of realism.
I wasn't expecting a documentary but come on, they could have at least indulged us pilots a little. At least refer to the runways correctly. They mentioned 10, 19, and 22 (none of which exist at the real LAX by the way), and they are calling them "Runway Ten," "Runway Nineteen," and "Runway Twenty-Two." Any airport personnel and any pilot would say, "Runway One-Zero," "Runway One-Nine (or one-niner if you want to be really picky), and "Runway Two-Two."
All we see in LAX is Heather Locklear and Blair Underwood bickering like schoolchildren at the elementary school playground. "I run the airport!" "No, I run the airport!" "No, I run the airport!" "I'm more important than you!" "No, I'm more important!" Absurd.
But I guess that this show has as much to do with airports and airplanes as shows like "Silk Stalkings" and "CSI" have to do with crime and detectives. All the audience wants to see is the beautiful people running around in their ultra-stylish clothing, trying to act all witty and important. This show is simply the latest installment of mindless prime-time idiotic crap.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
One Technical Detail
I just wanted to add that I really enjoyed seeing trebuchets being used in the battle of Minas Tirith. Those big contraptions used both by the orcs and the people of the city to hurl huge stones at one another were not catapults. A trebuchet is a much larger device that throws bigger stones and works on a very different operating principle. Some enthusiasts build trebuchets today just for fun, slinging bowling balls, old toilets, and even junk cars just for the heck of it.
Great job!
My Big Fat Greek Life (2003)
If you saw the pilot episode, just watch the movie again and forget that the sit-com ever happened.
A classic blunder, executives see how wildly successful the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" was, and they immediately work up plans for a TV series, hoping to capitalize on the film's success. But what happens instead is taking something that turned out great, and mercilessly beating it to death, trying to squeeze every last penny out of it.
The movie was great, but the sit-com sucks. The movie was full of funny characters, and the humor was very spontaneous. The characters didn't have to try to be funny, because they were just funny anyway. They seemed very genuine in the film, but in the pilot episode of the series, everything seemed so forced. The jokes and one-liners were poorly written and poorly delivered.
Furthermore, the chemistry between Ian and Toula in the film was very convincing; Ian was very charming and Toula was very loving. I thought that both Nia Vardalos and John Corbett did a great job. In the show, however, the replacement Ian (called "Thomas" in the show) was a total putz, I didn't like him at all, and he had almost no chemistry with Toula (or "Nia", rather). In the film, Ian was very accepting and even enthusiastic to espouse the Portokalos family traditions. But in the show, he bitches to Nia about "boundaries" and bickers with Gus about who built Stonehenge.
The only character that was almost tolerable on the show was Gus, the dad. They overdid his dialogue a bit, but he's still funny to watch.
"My Big Fat Greek Wedding" was a great movie, it was relatively inexpensive to produce and made lots of money, and people loved it. And I'm sure many DVDs and VHS tapes will be sold. I already have the DVD. "My Big Fat Greek Life", on the other hand, is just a bad idea; the movie was a great movie and let's just leave it at that, don't corrupt its legacy with a cornball sit-com.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)
A Very Funny Film, That's what it claimed to be and that's what it was
I saw this movie a couple of months ago with my wife. I went in expecting nothing more than a funny movie and that's exactly what I got. Too many reviewers on this site take the movie way too seriously. From the feminists who think that it's an absolute crime to make a film where the woman isn't truly happy until she meets "Mr. Right" to those of Greek heritage who somehow feel insulted, some people just can't lighten up and have a good laugh. You can't have a sense of humor if you can't laugh at yourself a little, and comedy usually involves exaggeration. Of course most Greek families don't have a huge Greek flag painted on their garage door or dance around a lamb roasting on a spit in their front yard, but every nationality has their own little quirks which you can have some fun with. I come from an Italian family and have seen my share of "Whatsamada you" jokes, and I don't mind at all. None of the humor is malicious.
---Spoiler---
The plot is very linear and that's all it has to be. The film wasn't bogged down with any attempt at seriousness; there's no big falling out between the girl and her over-protective father, and no serious problem with the Greek family's accepting the non-Greek husband-to-be. They meet, have a romance, and get married, and all the while, funny stuff is happening around them and to them. I laughed and laughed. It was funny and that's it, period. I loved it.
Friends (1994)
This Show Disproves That Old Adage, "You Can't Beat a Dead Horse"
Notice: If you've been living under a rock for the past few years, you may find a few minor spoilers here. Okay, with that out of the way...
Please, please, PLEASE cancel this damn show already! It was a good show at first, I used to watch it from time to time when I was in college, and it was funny. Now, and with the current season especially, it reeks of desperation. The network is clinging to the show, pulling out all of the stops just to keep the audience watching. First off was the "Rachael's pregnant" cliffhanger to kick off the series. Okay okay, you need a cliffhanger to kick the season off, but then every episode has to be a cliffhanger. Who's the father? Will they get married? What do their parents think? And when there are no more cliffs from which to hang, call in the cavalry (i.e. celebrities). Which such a big budget, they can and have called in anyone short of the Lord Jesus Christ to make a cameo for the promos. The show (as well as the cast) is getting old, it used to be a fun tale of the exploits of some kids right out of college making their way in the big city. Now they've all grown up, some are married, some are pregnant, and their lives are becoming quite boring to watch.
But more importantly, It seems to me that with this season, the cast members are getting tired of their roles. They're not nearly as lively as they used to be, they appear to be saying their lines grudgingly, as if their jobs went from a fun, exciting experience to a tedious chore. And the "beautiful people only" attraction of the show has also faded. In my opinion, early in the life of Friends, Courtney Cox was the hands-down most beautiful woman in the cast. But now, she's slicked her hair back so tight that it looks painted on, and she's gotten so damn skinny that it's become just plain gross. But whatever weight she's lost, Matthew Perry has found, as well as several pounds of his own. He used to be very thin and handsome, but now he's just damn fat. His neck has turned into another chin. This again illustrates the lack of enthusiasm for the role. With his six-figure-per-episode salary, you'd think that he could pay someone to exercise for him.
But the network plugs on, trying to milk every last penny out of the show, even refusing to air one of George W. Bush's speeches because it would delay Friends. That really incensed me - WE'RE IN A WAR FOR OUR FREEDOM and even that's not as important as Chandler's post-nuptual bachelor party of Monica's shoes. Truly disgraceful. So, NBC should take a hint from Cheers, a great show that did know when to close the curtain, and cancel Friends already. Quit beating the dead horse and let it rest in peace.
Contact (1997)
Some find it uplifting or inspirational, I found it Boring
I remember seeing this film in the theater. The thing I remember the most is that there were several scenes where the story cuts to a further point in time, and on the bottom of the screen it says something like, "One Year Later...." or "Two months later..." About two thirds of the way through the film I remember leaning over to my friend and saying, "Pretty soon you'll see 'Four Hours Later...' on the screen and it'll be a clip of us finally walking out of the theater." Or maybe they could have had a scene that said, "One Year Earlier..." and it'd be a clip of Robert Zemeckis firing his editor.
The film was too damn long, and too slow-moving. The first 45 minutes could have been deleted and the film would not have suffered. They tried way too hard to be spiritual and meaningful, and to me it came out as the usual melodramatic drivel that often emerges from Hollywood. The righteous scientist who has to fight the good fight just to get her well - deserved fair shake, the few who support her but pail in comparison to her strength so not to upstage her, the skeptical scientists who shun her righteous wisdom, they're all there, playing the role.
---Sopilers---
Then there's the ending. I think that this was best summed up by "South Park's" Mr. Garrison who, upon mention of this film, threw up and then exclaimed, "Aaaugh, that was a terrible film! I waited the whole movie to see the alien and it turned out to be her God damn father." Yep, that pretty much covers it. She almost gets her big chance but is surpassed at the last moment by the evil Christian scientist because he believes in God and out hero does not. But not to worry, our God-fearing foe gets the horrible death he so rightly deserves at the hands of some whacko protester who sets a bomb off and destroys the whole space capsule thingie (I'm not all that religious, but I am cahtolic and I found that this aspect of the movie was a definite attack on Christianity, still the only religion that's somehow PC to mock). So after suffering through even more of this, surprise surprise, there's ANOTHER space capsule thingie built just for Jodie! Great. So, she boards the bomb-free space capsule, and she's off! And what does she see? The alien? A new planet? NO! She seed Pensacola, Florida with a few extra constellations! And her dead father! That's it! And nobody believes her at the end except some insignificant political character who pops in for a couple of minutes.
----End of Spoilers---
Whew. So, to sum up, it was too long, too spiritually ambitious for its own good, and had a very disappointing ending.
Wing Commander (1999)
As a devout fan of the games, I feel betrayed.
I wish the producers/director of this film geared it more towards the fans of the games rather than moviegoers in general. In failing to do so, they disappointed both.
I was in high school when the Wing Commander computer games came out. They were an instant favorite of myself and my best friend. We'd spend countless hours playing and following the storyline. The games were like nothing we'd ever seen before - graphics, gameplay, sound effects were miles ahead of anything else at the time (on the original game, there was actually a sticker on the box that assured you that the picture on the front was an actual screenshot and not an artist's conception). Every sequel was better and better, introducing digitized speech, better graphics and effects, and (perhaps most importantly for this article) a richer storyline.
My favorite part of the game was the storyline, because it really assigned a purpose to your missions throughout the game. Without the story, the game would be just another dumb shoot-em-up game, and I'd grow tired of all the graphics and effects. The story gave me a real reason for completing the missions. By the time Wing Commander II and its secret missions came out, my friend and I would tell each other that there was easily enough material for a movie, but we never expected to actually see one.
Fast forward to 1999, haven't played Wing Commander for quite some time, I've been out of college for two years, I have a "real job", and I see a trailer for the movie. I immediately call my old friend, and we make plans to see it. We're both not expecting it to be good, we read a lot of bad press about it, but we are drawn to see it anyway, hoping that we'd be able to appreciate some similarities between the film and the game that we loved so much.
But there were essentially none. No similarities at all, except for names. They used the names of some of the Wing Commander characters, the bad guys were called Kilrathi, the home ship was called the Tiger's Claw, and that's it. That is quite literally where the similarities end.
The ships didn't even bear the slightest resemblance to those in the game. I wasn't looking for an exact match, but this was a disgrace. The fighters were so cool looking in the game, and so dumb looking in the film. The movie's "Rapier" (the only one of four fighters available in the game to appear in the film) looked like they stuck a huge bundle of cigars into a tin can, and crammed it into an old MiG-15's nose, then cut off most of the wings and tail and attached tin cans for engines. The bridge in the Tiger's Claw looked like a dim room full of old microwave ovens dressed up to look like computer terminals. And the Kilrathi (for the two seconds that you actually see them) didn't even look cat-like. They looked like mutated wart-hog muppets.
They didn't even get the command structure of the ship right or any pilot-pilot relations. First off, your character (he wasn't called Blair till WC3, in the first two you actually enter your own name, but we have to name him something)was NOT Maniac's best buddy, nor were they the same age. Blair was much older. Second, where the hell was Colonel Halcyon? He was my favorite character, and was erased for this movie. Halcyon was the real commander of the Tiger's Claw; Angel was just another pilot, NOT a commanding officer. She didn't assume any command at all until WC2 (set ten years after the demise of the Tiger's Claw), when she was in charge of a ship called the Concordia. And finally, Tolwyn didn't appear till WC2 (Ten years later) either.
I can go on and on even more, but my point is that I wasn't expecting an exact match, I was just expecting some match. This movie wasn't even close. The game contained a great story that would have made a good baseline for a movie, but instead of using that material, Chris Roberts decided to throw the whole thing down the crapper and start from scratch, concocting a stupid story filled with holes, and populating it was lousy acting, amateurish dialogue, and just plain dumb-looking spaceships.
This movie made me come to the realization that the original Wing Commander games ARE the movie; That's as good as it gets. And incidentally, starting with WC3, the games actually have better and more well-known actors than the film did.
7th Heaven (1996)
They should change the title to "How to be a Wuss"
This show infuriates me and amuses me at the same time. First, the "Infuriates" part:
These people are the biggest wusses of all time! Anyone who appears on the show is an absolute dork, even the people who are "bad influences" aren't bad enough to earn respect. For example, the Mary, the "rebel" girl, befriends some coworkers at a pizzaria, and you know what these terrible people do? They <<<DRINK BEER>>>!!! Oh my god! Perish the thought! And it gets even worse! Sometimes they <<<SMOKE CIGARETTES>>>!!! I'm shocked that Mary has even heard of beer or cigarettes. Of course, Mary was quickly forbidden from any social contact with these deviants once the parents found out about such evil-doing. The parents are so overprotective of their kids that it's sickening. And the kids (with the exception of Mary) play right along, do their chores, do their homework, brush their teeth, all while sporting an ear-to-ear grin. Even sibling rivalries are toned down to an absolute minimum. And at the end, the cute little girl always seems to utter some moral of the story that's designed to make you say, "Awwww". That kid annoys me the most of all.
Now on to the "amuses" part: This show is an extremely unrealistic portrayal on an "ideal" American family, and you can either let that anger you, or you can learn to enjoy that fact, and just laugh at all the characters cause they're all such dolts. I watch the show maybe once every couple of weeks, and view it as slapstick comedy. It's actually pretty funny in that respect. You get to watch how the Camdens deal with their "problems", and then wonder what they'd do if they were ever faced with any REAL problems. My sister shares my opinion of the show, whenever it's on, we'll say something to the effect of, "7th Heaven is on, are you ready to learn your morals?"
If everyone in America viewed "7th Heaven" and lived exactly how the show taught them to live, we'd be taken over by Iraq inside of ten years.
Pearl Harbor (2001)
I'd be offended if I were a veteran
This movie turned to seriousness of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor into one big joke. The movie wasn't about Pearl Harbor at all, it was a dopey, cliche love story SET IN Pearl Harbor. I was expecting to see a gripping war story and instead saw a three hour melodrama with a very expensive fireworks display thrown in. I did enjoy watching the special effects, but that alone can't make a movie good.
I think that the standard for the current generation of WWII movies should definitely be "Saving Private Ryan." That was an excellent movie. The opening sequence was unbelievable, and it set the tone for the entire film. They didn't taint the storyline by throwing in a stupid love plot to sell tickets to 16 year olds, this movie was deadly serious. Then came "Enemy at the Gates." Not bad, unfortunately there was a love sub plot, but it was just that, a sub plot. Then comes Pearl Harbor, where the (factual) battle is the sub-plot, and the true focus is this absolutely dopey (fictitious) love story.
SORT-OF SPOILER ahead, but it was shown in the trailer on tv:
Like I said, I did like the battle sequence, but even that got silly fast. First off, I expected more from Cuba Gooding Jr's role. His role was basically a cameo, an afterthought. All he did was appear for about five minutes, just enough to gain the audience's approval, and then assume the role of hero as he shoots a plane down from his sinking ship. He was there for the sole purpose of putting him in the trailers to sell more tickets.
SPOILERS AHEAD:
Secondly, they had to portray Ben Affleck and his best friend as superheroes, the only two pilots who could cause any damage at all to the Japanese. They make it to a nearby airfield, and there's only a few planes that are ready to fly, how 'bout that? It gets better. Then, the first guy (a nameless pilot) gets into a plane, tries to take off, and gets shot to pieces on his takeoff roll. Of course! We can't have some schmoe cramping Ben Affleck's style, right? Next, our heroes mount their steeds, and wow! They made it off the ground to fight the Zeroes! Then the Japanese pilots instantly go brain dead, and Ben and company start picking them off as if they were shooting at hang gliders. And then it gets even better! Ben and his friend each have three zeroes on their tail, and they can't shake them! Oh no! So what do they do? They pull the same whacky hi-jinx that they did at the beginning of the film, and play chicken! Ben and his friend come barreling toward each other, all the while the enemy fighters are courteous enough not to fire a single shot at them, and at the last possible second, our heroes turn away from each other and the zeroes are all destroyed in a massive midair pile-up! At this point, I literally covered my mouth and began to laugh uncontrollably. It was contagious, as my girlfriend saw me and she, too started to laugh. That dogfight scene was so silly, I was beside myself. If that film had even the slightest shred of seriousness in it, at that point it went down in flames along with the six zeroes that crashed into each other. The only thing I could think of was, "C'mon Luke, it'll be just like Beggar's Canyon back at home!" (a "Star Wars" quote for those of you who don't recognize it)
OK, YOU CAN LOOK AGAIN, END OF SPOILERS.
So to sum up, I'd say rent the film on video or DVD, fast-forward till the battle scene, watch that part, and return it. This movie made a mockery of Pearl Harbor, it used that terrible attack as nothing more than a backdrop for a ridiculous love story and an excuse to spend millions of dollars on special effects. If you want to see the REAL Pearl Harbor movie, it's at most video stores. It's called, "Tora! Tora! Tora!"
Ryôri no tetsujin (1993)
The only show I watch regularly
This show is my favorite. Finally a cooking show that's not a boring "how to" session, it is not at all the intention of this show to teach you how to cook. You just sit back and watch these guys use the theme ingredient to prepare a gourmet meal in an hour, and you ooh and ahh.
It's no surprise to me that the challengers take the contest so seriously. Cooking is their art, and the challengers are very respected among the culinary world, owning only the classiest restaurants. This is a true test of their mettle, and they have something to prove. The other great thing is that this isn't a petty game show where some obscene amount of money is at stake. According to the show's intro, all the challenger gets if he/she (yes, I have seen a female competitor on the show) wins is "The peoples' ovation and fame forever". Okay, that sounds a bit silly, but seriously, all they win is the honor of beating an Iron Chef. The only material prize is an indirect one, since the winner's restaurant can now boast an Iron Chef victory and will definitely gain a lot of new customers.
I think that the Food Network did a great job converting the show for an English speaking audience. First off, congrats for not dubbing Kaga. His "If my memory serves me right..." monologue is my favorite part of the show, and I like to listen to how he speaks the Japanese language, even though I don't speak a word of it myself. Second, congrats on dubbing everyone else. Reading subtitles for the whole show would get very tiresome. Some of the dubbed voices sound downright silly (especially Chen Kenichi and Hiroyuki Sakai), but that's ok. I think that it adds an element of humor (intentional or not) without making the whole show seem like a big joke. And finally, they did a good job budgeting time. You don't see the whole hour of cooking, but you see enough of it to know what's going on, and there's still time for the intros and the judging. My only complaint it that there is a TON of commercials.
And one more thing - I like Ota! Everyone seems annoyed by him, but how can you have an episode without him? His "Fukui-san!" comments are the only thing that explains what the chefs are doing, and since they are doing so much so fast, Ota has a lot to tell Fukui-san and the audience. It is amazing to me how he memorizes every ingredient that goes into the pans.
The Devil's Advocate (1997)
Very Enjoyable: My non-spoiler comment on the film
This is one of my favorite movies of the 90s. Creepy and freaky in a subtle way, there were no monsters to jump out at you, no guys with chainsaws or goalie masks, and no razor-sharp fingers. The devil didn't spew fire and brimstone on the innocent, he instead very skillfully used temptation to bring out the evil in people until it destroyed them and their loved ones. It shows that the true horror is the evil that lurks inside oneself, and the consequences of that evil going unchecked.
I remember wanting to see this movie because I had recently rented Scent of a Woman, and I loved Pacino's speech at the end; I wanted to see him deliver another ranting and raving speech, this time as Satan himself. And he didn't disappoint.
And I loved how it ended. Many movies have a great storyline that's completely ruined by a cornball ending, but not Devil's Advocate. The ending was satisfying and made the film worth watching. I left the theater happy.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
It's not for everyone, but I loved it
Dr. Strangelove is a true classic, one of my all-time favorites. But it's not for everyone. You'll either love it or you won't get it. It's a very specific brand of humor but if you get it, it's like the funniest type of joke, the inside joke.
Without going into too many plot details, I'd just like to say that who can honestly say that George C. Scott's character, General "Buck" Turgidson wasn't supposed to be Curtis Lamay? Brilliant. And the shell-shocked, half mad Strangelove, with that one uncontrollable arm that still spasms into a salute for the Fuhrer.
Every character was truly a character, and that's really what made the movie great.
Enemy at the Gates (2001)
Good but not Great
I like war movies, and I liked this war movie. It seems that WWII movies are making a bit of a comeback (I'm really looking forward to "Pearl Harbor"), and I'm glad to see it. Starting with Saving Private Ryan, it's good to see that war movies are starting to become more historically and graphically correct. Old war movies were a joke, showing hundreds of deaths in battles, but not a single drop of blood. This new crop of war movies really gets in your face, shows you the hell that the soldiers endured, and shows what really happens when a bullet finds human flesh. It's not for the squeamish, but it's the truth.
This is what I expected to see in Enemy at the Gates, and It's what I did see. Sort-of.
---Minor Spoilers Ahead---
Though there were great battle scenes, the movie didn't really center on the battle itself, it centered on the duel between the crackerjack Russian sniper and propaganda hero, Zaitsev, and the German sniper sent to silence him, Konings. The cat-and-mouse (or maybe cat-and-cat, they both had rifles after all) battles of cunning between Zaitsev and Konings were fascinating, but they started to become tiresome after a while, the movie started to drag on a bit, and the ending was disappointing, it was what I called a "Star Trek ending". Why? Because in the series "Star Trek" (the newer one with Patrick Stewart, that is), the episodes always spent most of the time building up this big problem, making a huge deal about it, and then the problem is solved in like, two minutes. One of the crew pushes a button and it's all over, problem solved. Basically this movie ends in a similar manner, with the abruptness of a switch being thrown into the "off" position.
And finally, I was so disappointed that they had to throw the obligatory love story in there. It's so cliche, and this one was poorly done. It was really pointless, and I think that it really detracted from the film. That's one thing I really liked about "Saving Private Ryan", they didn't taint a serious war story with a two-bit soap opera.
All in all, I did like it, but it fell a little short of my expectations.
Beloved (1998)
Words Cannot Describe...
...How much I hated this film. I realize that with internet reviews, people are usually way too quick to tag a movie as "best I've ever seen " or "worst I've ever seen", without appreciating the sheer weight of the word "ever". But "Beloved" was by far and away, bar none, the absolute worst movie I've even seen. THREE HOURS (that felt like twelve hours) of my life that I'll never get back.
I went into this movie with an open mind, all I knew about it was that it starred Oprah, so it must be a "Chick Flick", but that's all I knew. And I thought she did a good job in "The Color Purple," so I thought how bad could it be? At first I was surprised that the first ten or twenty minutes were actually almost interesting, lots of scary stuff happened. And the acting was very good. But that's it, once they dispensed with that, the movie took a three hour turn for the worst.
Basically, there was no continuity, no ascertainable plot, and a lot of really gross stuff. In my opinion, the producers/directors/Oprah wanted an oscar, and they wanted it bad. So they got out their cauldron and started concocting: Shocking scenes, all-star cast, confusing as hell, Oprah as the lead role for political correctness, eye of newt (okay, no newts were harmed in the filming). The movie tries way too hard to be so meaningful and psychologically intense. Instead, it ended up irritating and annoying me. I got nothing out of this movie.
I give it a ZERO out of ten.
Mystery, Alaska (1999)
I like Hockey, but I thought the film was just plain boring
Man, after skimming the first 20 or so comments, I get the feeling that I am a minority in my opinion of this film; I found that it was pretty much the most boring movie that I have ever seen. I like ice hockey and I even played it a little in college, but that alone was not enough to hold my interest in this film.
I rented it thinking that it was supposed to be a dramatic comedy, but the jokes were so few and far between (and even then, few of the jokes were funny) that I soon realized that it was no comedy. I also didn't find it very dramatic - you can't really identify with the characters, there are too many players and too little time.
I didn't even make the connection between this film and Rocky until reading another user's review just now. The difference is that in Rocky, you follow the life of a single man very closely, you really get into the fact that he is poor, lives in the slums of New York, a real underdog who suddenly has a shot, and from the beginning he pours his entire life into his chance to be recognized, to rise up as a true underdog.
But in Mystery, Alaska, you don't really get that feeling of the underdog that rises from the top against seemingly impossible odds. They try to make an entire town into an underdog, and it's just hard to identify with that. After getting a deal dropped in its lap, the town ends up acting like a bunch of bickering stooges, and then at the end they play a hockey game against the New York Rangers. By the time they got to the game, I didn't even care if they won or lost.
Another major difference is that Rocky Balboa was likeable; during the film you really get to know him and realize that he's a good man living a rough life. In contrast, most of the people in the town of Mystery acted like a bunch of jerks, I really didn't like any of them. I could feel some empathy when I saw Rocky, but I didn't give a crap about any of these Mystery hockey players.
The only positive thing that I can say about the film is that the acting was good. But that's not enough to make a good movie. Mystery, Alaska is nothing more than a boring waste of good acting talent.