Mr. Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story (2013)

Purely Joyful Movie!

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

I got to watch Mr. Hockey just the other night for the very first time and although I am not a hockey fan, found the film quite appealing and interesting. I am not altogether out of touch with the game and do, therefore, recognize one of the greatest names ever to play the game. I may have come in knowing next to nothing about him but I came out the other end appreciating, very much, the type of man, player, husband and father he was and, in my opinion, I think Michael Shanks did a stand-out job portraying Gordie Howe.I cannot however, say much about the production of this film or the bulk of the cast either. Shanks was the only character that completely inhabited his part. Kathleen Robertson was good but far too young for the part of the 40 year old Colleen Howe. In my estimation the production was an unprofessional shambles from the rest of the casting to the direction and writing plus the clothing, make-up and hair styles of the era in which Gordie joined his sons in signing on with the WHA and the Houston (Howeston) Aeros team in 1973. Colleen Howe looked to be about 22 years of age instead of 40, which she would have been in 1973 having been born in 1933! We first see her in 1973 wearing a pair of gray suede heels designed in the next millennium! An obvious oversight?!?! The make-up used was all wrong for her and she wore an excruciating amount of it for the time. Instead of aging her a bit they made her up as though she were a flawless Barbie type Kewpie doll...and it was a huge mistake! The polyester clothing was particularly bad and out of step, even for the 70's and the fright wigs, especially the one donned by Bobby Hull, were annoyingly laughable rather than in any way real.This was film designed to depict one year of his life...the 1973 season. He was only two years out of retirement but was severely out of shape. The thing I didn't quite comprehend was this...Colleen Howe seemed to be an absolute and borderline OCD perfectionist in every way! She ruled Gordie and the entire household with an iron fist and knew every nuance of everyone's life within the family unit. Why she didn't say something to him and why it took so long for it to dawn on Gordie that at age 45 and two years after retirement he could not get away with simply re-signing to play the game again is beyond me. The boys, his teammates, might have clued him in as well but didn't. They were both just OK in their roles but you had absolutely no sense of them as members of that family or as players at all. The daughter was OK too but she was stuck in between them somehow. The only other person I can say did well in his role was Howe's former teammate, Bill Dineen, played by Martin Cummins, who "defected" to the WHA and who hired Gordie as well as drafted the boys. Tom Anniko who played Bruce Norris was pretty darned good as well...at least he was good enough to hate for his treatment of Howe after Gordie went to the WHA to join his boys on the ice! Howe is the only player in the history of the game to compete in 6 decades of his life...he last took the ice at about age 70! I think it's a great little film for the sake of nostalgia but for my money, they gave Gordie Howe pretty short shrift! They might have given this icon of hockey a bit better script, story line and a decent production team to get this film done properly. They only had 14 producers on the film...and was this ever a case of too many cooks spoil the soup! It's worth a watch even if it's only to see Shanks in the role and to learn just a bit about the great Gordie Howe.

A person would need to be born before 1950 or 1960 to truly appreciate what Gordie Howe meant to professional ice hockey in North America. More importantly all the professional hockey players who succeeded Gordie Howe in the National Hockey League (NHL) through the past four decades need to bestow credit and praise on Gordie Howe for raising awareness between the disparity between what the NHL owners were raking in in profits, and how NHL players salaries climbed after Gordie Howe un-retired from the NHL and signed with the WHA Houston Aeros. Due to Gordie Howe's and Mrs. Howe's endless loyalty to the management of the Detroit Red Wings, this biography depicts how the executives running the NHL believed they controlled what players would be making in salary and bonuses 'til death made them part. However, when the World Hockey Association (WHA) was trying to establish itself as the "other league", the NHL did not consider the WHA to be a serious threat to their monopoly because the two biggest hockey stars were playing for the NHL's Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Black Hawks. The two biggest names in the NHL in the 1960's and early 1970's were Gordie Howe (played extremely well by Michael Shanks) who held most of the NHL's prestigious scoring records, and the younger Bobby Hull (played by Lochlyn Munro) whose physical attributes reminded many of Hercules, and Bobby had a booming slap shot with the scoring touch. Mr. Hockey provides some good historical detail about the younger Bobby Hull's exodus to the WHA for an unheard of (for the time) one million dollars per year. Bobby signed with the WHA shortly after, the old guy, Gordie Howe retired from the Detroit Red Wings and took a job in their front office. The movie depicts how much Gordie was missing the on ice action and was enticed back in to professional hockey by the WHA as part of a three man deal Mrs. Colleen Howe arranged with the newly formed Houston Aeros, which allowed the biggest name in hockey, Mr. Hockey himself, get to play professional hockey with his two skilled sons Mark and Marty Howe.In my humble opinion, any true hockey fan has to see this movie as a tribute not only to Gordie Howe, but to the entire Howe family whose legacy is a life in hockey itself. This movie gives us all some insight in to the close knit Howe family ran by mom Colleen, played well by Kathleen Robertson, their daughter Cathy Howe, played by Emma Grabinsky, and Gordie and Colleen's two sons, Mark played by Andrew Herr and Marty played by Dylan Playfair.On a personal note, I had the opportunity of a life time to meet with Mr. Howe during a stopover in a Boston airport late one evening. I approached him very gingerly as he sat alone. I respected his right to privacy, and he appeared to be suffering from a bit of jet lag. Mr. Howe could not have been nicer to me, he insisted I sit down and converse with him. We talked for a good 10 to 15 minutes. He asked if I had any children and if I would like his autograph for my boys. I told him I did not want to bother him, but instead he asked what their names were and he wrote a special something for each of my sons. Mr. Hockey portrays Gordie Howe as a father first, a hockey legend, a six time winner of the Art Ross trophy winner, a sports celebrity who always gave his autograph freely.....but put skates on this man and a hockey stick in his hand and look out for "Old Elbows"!!!!All hockey fans should see this Made For TV Movie, which is a deserved tribute to the single most important man in professional hockey both for his scoring prowess and his longevity. Gordie Howe played at the highest level of the game well in to his 50's, he truly is an amazing man our Mr. Hockey, and because of the class act Gordie Howe has been for his entire life this film deserves nothing less than a perfect 10/10, just as Gordie Howe has always been a perfect 10. Thanks for so many great memories Mr. Hockey!

There is just absolutely no meat in this story of hockey legend, Gordie Howe, who retires from the Detroit Red Wings, only to go the World Hockey League and play and move to a Texas team along with his two sons.The story tries to show Mrs. Howe as a loving, ambitious, hockey-mom type of wife.I think that Howe needed more than an apology from his son, when the latter criticized him in an article.There really is no central story or theme in this film. The film is a rather dull and poor biography of the hockey icon.

Gordie Howe was a simple, quite man off the ice but on it, he is a force to be reckoned with. Nicknamed "elbows" due to his frequent use of them to other player's faces, he became "Mr. Hockey" by scoring 786 goals in his NHL career. After retiring from the Detroit Red Wings and taking a job in the head office, he decides to join the new World Hockey Association when a former teammate lands a job coaching the Houston Aeroes and drafts Gordie's 2 sons who are too young to play in the NHL. This is a great story of his rise to the top of the new league and also shows how gentile, yet firm, he is raising his own family. Respect for others, dignity and perseverance are all positive themes shown throughout this film. If you love the game or know someone who plays Hockey on any level, you will appreciate this great story based upon the real life of Gordie Howe.