Mystery, Alaska (1999)

Just perfect...

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

I must admit, the first time a saw a poster of this movie, I thought it would be silly and dumb. Therefore, I avoided watching it. After a couple of years it was on TV and I didn't have anything better to do at the moment, so I sat down and watched it. After seeing it, I was sold!!!! Wat a great and fun movie to watch. I spent the next 2 years looking for it on DVD. Thank god, movies are much easier to find in the US. During my internship here I finally found it.The movie is about a small Alaskan town where hockey is the way of living. The local team consists out of a bunch of talented but crazy characters. However the team and the rest of the small town get very serious when a publicity stunt takes place and the local team gets the chance to play an exhibition game against NHL team, New York Rangers. To give the movie a more serious impact, there are also some more serious things going around some of the teammates and other residents. A team captain who doesn't feel appreciated but the mayor. A hockey player who realizes that having sex with to many people has consequences, The wife of the mayor has a secret that her husband ultimately finds out and the friendly assistant of the mayor, who stands up to the people who make fun of his 'Lumberjack' town. The humor combined with the dramatic tint makes this movie excellent for the whole family. Fans of hockey and humor will definitely have a good time watching this. I've learned now that a poster doesn't mean anything. I missed out on a great movie for a long time because of thinking like that. Never again!!!9 out of 10 for this one. Fun fun movie!!!

Donna Biebe wears the same hat that Dexter Rutecki (Peter Berg) wears in the outstanding ski movie "Aspen Extreme".The hat is the Mt. Brighton maintenance employee's hat from a small ski hill outside of Detroit, Michigan. In the movie, Biebe goes out to the pond in the middle of the night when Russell Crowe is skating after he gave her the newspaper with all of the kind words left on the page for her to read. I grew up in Brighton, Michigan and own the maintenance hat which became a collector's item at the resort ski shop in the early 1990's.Check out Mt. Brighton on Wikipedia for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Brighton

After all the frivolous lightweight movies Burt Reynolds has starred in, many people have forgotten that he started out as a dramatic actor(Deliverance, etc.). In this movie, he turns in a dignified, serious, very believable performance as one of the most respected residents of Mystery, Alaska, who feels compelled to speak out against what he believes will harm the town.Russell Crowe also turns in a first-rate performance as one of the town's best hockey players, who has to deal with being told that he is getting too old to play and that he should step down and allow younger players a chance. He also has to painfully deal with his wife's suspected infidelity.This is not a movie to let your children watch. There is quite a bit of bad language, and one character does considerable bragging about his sexual conquests.

It is weird to think that Russell Crowe was part of this rather low key sports drama since most of his films have been of a higher order. I almost forgot that before he made L.A. Confidential he was relatively unknown in the U.S. and it was only when he was nominated for an Oscar for "The Insider" that his movies became big events.That aside, this is an immensely entertaining little movie and Crowe has a very sympathetic character here. His character has many things in common with characters in other sports movies like Walter Matthau in "Bad News Bears" and most of these movies have a strict formula. They usually revolve around underdogs and here we get a local hockey team who gets a chance to play against a NHL team, the New York Rangers. There are not many ways to tamper with this formula and indeed "Mystery, Alaska" does not stray from it. Instead we get very enjoyable hockey action and the usual rivalry between the better hockey player and the one who thinks he should be the star. In this case the part is filled out nicely by Ron Eldard, who is not a household name, at least not here in Denmark, but he has made a few films that stuck with me, one of them being the revenge drama "Sleepers". Here he has a much larger part and he does well as the arrogant rival to Crowe.The other supporting actors like Burt Reynolds and Hank Azaria are mostly decorative but there is no one who can play smarmy better than Azaria and Reynolds does well as a more dignified character than he has ever played before (check out his senator in "Striptease" to compare). The sole female, Lolita Davidovich, is terribly underwritten but that is typical of this kind of movie.Last there is a cameo by Mike Myers who of course struck gold with the director of this film and this is as it should be. So many directors do the same so why not here. The actual big game is not that extraordinary but there are enough good moments to make this a pleasant viewing experience.