A frozen small town's Saturday-afternoon tradition of an intramural hockey game gets written up in Sports Illustrated by a bumptious one-time resident of the place: "On pure skating ability, the boys of Mystery, Alaska rival any team in the NHL." No sooner said than the New York Rangers are booked for an exhibition game. In short, Rocky-hockey, another entry in the endless Disney line of stand-up-and-cheer sports films. (Carter Burwell's music at times echoes his score for a far better movie than Rocky -- Fargo -- but the snow might exaggerate the similarity.) Russell Crowe is quite touching as the slow-afoot town sheriff who has lost his spot on the team to a speedy up-and-comer, and Mary McCormack is unglitteringly attractive as his wife, and Burt Reynolds is on his best behavior as the censorious justice of the peace and firmly retired hockey coach ("Two things we've always had in Mystery -- our dignity and our illusions. I suggest we cling to both"). A cameo by Mike Myers as a broken-nosed Canadian hockey legend and current TV commentator reminds us that director Jay Roach also directed the Austin Powers piffle, a potential pinprick to this film's fragile bubble of fantasy. Hank Azaria, Ron Eldard, Lolita Davidovich, Colm Meaney, Maury Chaykin. (1999) — Duncan Shepherd
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