Today's Movie: Slap Shot

This is a personal favorite of mine. I'm a huge hockey fan and the late Paul Newman is one of my all-time favorite actors but, in addition to that, this is also a really good movie full of memorable characters and quotable lines.

1977's Slap Shot centers around a minor league hockey team called the 'Charlestown Chiefs', and their player-coach Reggie Dunlop (played by Paul Newman). Charlestown is a factory town on the decline and the Chiefs aren't very good, so the team's manager does everything he can to cut costs while simultaneously having the players participate in sometimes embarrassing promotions just to keep the team afloat. During yet another losing season, the team picks up a trio of enthusiastic players known as the Hanson brothers who play a rough and tumble style of hockey and start fights. Dunlop is initially reluctant to play the three brothers until one night he gets word that the team is going to fold after this current season. Being a better con-man than a player or coach, Dunlop convinces the team to start playing dirty, and to get into more fights to draw interest, eventually he lets the Hanson's loose and they become a force to be reckoned with on the ice. This tactic begins work, the Chief actually start winning, and fans start showing up to the games to cheer them on. With interest in the team growing, Dunlop plants a false story with a local sports writer saying that a retirement community in Florida is interested in purchasing the team, with the hope that the story will add to the teams confidence and hopefully lead to an actual sale.

Well, after trying for quite a while Reggie gets a meeting with the team's owner but despite the teams recent success she still has every intention of folding the franchise for a tax write-off. Disheartened by this news, Dunlop comes clean to his players about the team folding and the story about moving to Florida being made up. In the end, the Chiefs make it to the championship game and, because one of the opposing players punches a ref, they actually win. It's the perfect dumb-luck victory for a team that only started winning after they threw clean play and good sportsmanship out the window. I love it.

Start to finish I always have a lot of laughs whenever I watch this one. In my opinion, it's one of Paul Newman's best performances (which is saying a lot), and one of the all-time best sports movies.
I highly recommend it.

I give this one a 4.5 out of 5.

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Today's Movie: The Verdict

I've never been the biggest fan of courtroom drama films, so I had put off watching 1982's The Verdict for a while despite it being recommended to me several times.

In this one Paul Newman plays attorney Frank Galvin, a washed-up, alcoholic, ambulance-chaser who has only has only had 4 cases in the last 3 years and he's lost them all. One day a friend and former teacher Mickey Morrissey (played by Jack Warden) hands him a case that should result in a quick, easy, out of court settlement. Two well respected doctors, working for a Catholic hospital, accidentally gave a woman the wrong anesthesia during surgery leaving the woman in a permanent coma. If it were to go to trial it could look badly on the church and permanently damage the reputation of the two doctors, so they want to settle it and sweep the whole thing under the rug. However, once Galvin visits the hospital to take some photos of the woman on life support, he realizes that this may be his chance do the right thing for the first time in a long time. 

From a plot standpoint, this isn't going to offer up anything you probably haven't seen before. The church has an army of top-notch, well-respected lawyers working on their behalf and a solid case. Frank and Mickey on the other hand, have a hard time even getting a credible witness. So, it's the classic in-over-his-head attorney, fighting for justice for the common man story and it plays out mostly how you'd expect.

However, the film does largely overcome this predictable, paint-by-numbers plot with some solid writing, decent tension, and good performances throughout, particularly by Paul Newman. Overall, I thought it was a really good film, and I give it a 4 out of 5.

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Western Wednesday: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a 1969 Western starring Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy and Robert Redford as the Sundance Kid. The film has a unique blend of comedy and all the common things you'd expect from a film in this genre.

The plot is straight forward and entertaining: Butch and Sundace, as well as their gang (The Hole In The Wall Gang) are outlaws who are quite fond of robbing trains. It's decided early on that they'll rob a Union Pacific train on both its eastward and westward runs, thinking that no one would expect a second robbery of the same train.The first robbery goes as planned but, unfortunately the second train robbery does not. Butch accidentally uses a bit too much dynamite to blow open the safe, and ends up blowing up an entire baggage car. While the whole gang scrambles to pick up the money that has been blown everywhere, another train arrives. This one is carrying a group of lawmen, so Butch and Sundance make a run for it. Unfortunately for them, the team of lawmen is being lead by a legendary Indian tracker. So, Butch convinces Sundance  that they should escape to Bolivia, where they do actually become successful bank robbers. But it's only a matter of time before the law catches up to them.

 On it's own the plot would make for a decent Western, but it's the chemistry between the two leads (Newman and Redford) that really takes this film from good to great.

Overall, I highly recommend this one and I give it a 4.5 out of 5.


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