Men With Brooms
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Movie Reviews of Men With Brooms
Movie Review: looking
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been looking for this size for a while. Ialso have been looking for the ones with elastic sides.Movie Review: "It's not the size of the army, it's the fury of its onslaught."
Summary: 4 Stars
Let me tell you, nothing gets me up like the sport of curling. I go nuts with the foam finger and the thunder stick whenever I tune in to a curling match. Just watching the 42-pound granite stone wending its way down the ice sheet, its course being affected by brooms, in an effort to get into the house and as close as it can to the button, well, it's just something that's fraught with intensity and poetry.
Okay, so I don't know what I'm talking about. Before this film, I knew nothing about curling. When I popped MEN WITH BROOMS in the dvd player, I was expecting something along the lines of Dodgeball - A True Underdog Story (Unrated Edition) or Balls of Fury since I figured curling to be as equally ignored and trivialized as dodgeball and table tennis are in these parts and would probably be also only televised on ESPN the Ocho. I did have a notion that MEN WITH BROOMS would be more clever and would resonate more. And it was, and it did. MEN WITH BROOMS is a winning Canadian picture, bolstered by a fine cast of Canadian actors, a sensitive yet hilarious story, and featuring as its centerpiece a sport which actually becomes interesting within the film's context, although I doubt I'll be going out of my way to cheer on this event in the Olympics.
The death of a kindly curling coach reunites his four messed-up proteges, including that sunuvacanadian Chris Cutter (Paul Gross). Chris, a gifted skip (curling team captain & strategist), had ten years ago abandoned his sport, his teammates, his tiny town of Long Bay, and his girlfriend, who happens to be Coach Foley's daughter and now an astronaut. The coach's last wish was for his remnants to be cremated and placed in a curling stone, and that stone be used to win the local curling tournament and regain the Golden Broom trophy. The rest of the film shows how Chris and his teammates (a drug dealer, a mortician, and a husband with a low sperm count) try to get their act together and do the dead guy proud. Also, there are beavers.
I've come to believe that whenever Paul Gross is involved in a project, that project instantly becomes credible and something worth experiencing. Due South: Season One (4-DVD Digipack) and Slings & Arrows - Season 1 are two fine examples. I'm not sure how many people know of Paul Gross, but he's big and very bankable in maple leaf territory. And he's got large talent. Gross wears several hats in MEN WITH BROOMS. Here he acts, he writes, and he directs. He does all these well.
The picture enlists the services of striking actress Molly Parker and Gross's buddy Leslie Nielsen (of NAKED GUN fame and who guest-starred a bunch of times in DUE SOUTH), and they're invaluable. Molly soulfully plays Amy, the sister of Chris's ex-girlfriend, who for years has been secretly in love with Chris. Nielsen strays from typecasting and takes on the dark, ornery role of Chris's estranged dad and new coach. Basically, the cast is Canadian and therefore funny. The actors playing Chris's teammates are lovable and off the wall, from the clueless Eddie, to the henpecked Neil, to the shameless bon vivant Lennox. I also laughed at some of the stuff spouted by the game announcer amidst his beer-swilling ("That shot was impossible once - so, to do it again, mathematically, it's gotta be...twice as impossible!"). There were moments when I thought I was listening to Bob Eucker in MAJOR LEAGUE. Also worth a heads up: Canadian group The Tragically Hip provides two new songs, as well as a cameo appearance.
What is curling? I could say it resembles the game of shuffleboard, but then people might ask, "Well, and what's shuffleboard?" I've since learned that curling is also called the roaring game (nicknamed so for the sound the stone makes as it travels the breadth of the ice). The game possibly originates from Scotland in the 16th century (although that's all up for debate). The brooms? The sweeping of the brooms causes friction and heating on ice which helps to determine the stone's direction and speed. And regarding the rules and complexities of the game, I quote from the film: "Each team has 8 rocks. Each guy throws two. When all the rocks are thrown, whoever has their rock closest to the button, that team gets the points." See, simple (But, here we go again: "What's a button?"). Anyway, don't let the unfamiliar terminology or the initial inexplicability of curling stop you from watching this one. The movie does a good job of filling you in enough so that you can sit back and relax.
The bonus extras? Not much here. There's a 4 and a half minute interview with Paul Gross (in which he doesn't talk about this film but does go into what made him want to be an actor and he also touches on Due South), a 5 minute featurette, and the theatrical trailer. Also, there are outtakes during the end credits.
I might make fun of curling, but the film doesn't make the error of doing the same. MEN IN BROOMS is never less than sincere and affectionate in its treatment of the sport, which is wise because, apparently, Canadians are excellent curlers. I think this film is worth 4 stars: one, because it has Paul Gross; two, because I love underdog sports cinema; and three, because MEN WITH BROOMS is well-done, funny, quirky, and touching.
Now, if only there's a good sports film out there about shuffleboard.
Movie Review: Cute! (And the movie's pretty good, too.)
Summary: 4 Stars
Men with Brooms (Paul Gross, 2002)
I don't like sports that don't involve four-legged creatures or playing cards. So what is it about sports movies that always gets me? I don't know. Well, okay, I do in this case. I worship the ground Molly Parker walks on and will watch her in anything, even a movie about curling. Yes, curling, that odd Scots sport where you throw a rock and direct men with brooms to sweep the ground in front of it in various ways. I hadn't read any reviews of the movie before watching it, so I didn't know what the popular feeling about this movie was. I have done so since, and it seems that I'm quite in the minority on this, but I loved it.
The story concerns a curling team who dispersed a decade before on the cusp of winning the Golden Broom after team captain Chris Cutter (Paul Gross of the much-beloved TV series Due South) flaked out and walked off the ice. On the death of their old coach, Donald Foley (The Changeling's James B. Douglas), the four get together with Foley's family for the reading of his will, and he charges them to reunite and win the trophy. And thus Lennox, Eddie Strombeck (Jed Rees, recently seen in The Ringer), Neil Bucyk (James Allido of Glitter), and James Lennox (Peter Outerbridge, previously paired with Parker in the amazing Kissed) are back together and on the ice. There's also a subplot about Cutter and his father (Leslie Nielsen), whom they decide to recruit as a coach, and one about Cutter and Foley's two daughters-- Julie(Michelle Nolden, soon to be seen in the upcoming adatation of All Hat), who Cutter left when he left town a decade previously, and Amy (Parker), a recovering alcoholic who's been carrying a torch for Cutter all their lives.
Yes, it's all predictable. Yes, the dialogue could've used some work. Yes, the jokes are generally cheap. And yes, I realized the whole time I was being shamelessly manipulated. And I didn't care. I got to know these characters, even through all of the movie's flaws, and I got to be friends with them. And to me, that made it worthwhile. It's a minor movie, but it's a damn good minor movie. For pure popcorn entertainment, look no further than Men with Brooms. *** ½
Movie Review: You Don't Have to Understand Curling to Love This Movie
Summary: 4 Stars
I went to see this movie at the theater because I am a Paul Gross (the mountie in Due South) fan. I knew almost nothing about the sport of curling and still I loved this movie. It's funny, it's romantic; it's got action and angst and humor and a great story.Gross plays Chris Cutter, a guy who returns home 10 years after he walked out on his fellow curling teammates during a championship. He comes back for the coach's funeral. When the will is read, the coach asks the teammates to get together again and go for the golden broom (the most pretigious curling trophy in Canada).
They all hem and haw, but decide to try. Their first match, against a group of octogenerians, is a disaster. So it's off to train in a hilarious sequence of events.
Along the way, there is lots of angst between Paul and his former fiance (Michelle Nolden), whom he never said good-bye to when he left. There is also the fiance's baby sister (wonderfully portrayed by Molly Parker) who has always had a thing for Paul and still does. More angst. Yum.
Paul's teammates are quite a group. Peter Outerbridge is charming and funny as the gang's womanizer who can't remember the names of women he sleeps with. Jed Rees is adorable as a loving, but frustratingly infertile husband. James Allodi is the down on his luck guy who must choose between curling and his wife, who aspires to high society. A wonderful group of people, who we come to care for.
Paul Gross wrote the screenplay and directed it. He does a great job. Buy it! You won't be sorry.
Movie Review: The World's Second-Most Boring Sport..
Summary: 4 Stars
"Lagaan" proved a couple of years ago that you could make a good movie about a truly boring sport: cricket. You can even make a movie that makes it almost comprehensible. Now, "Men With Brooms" shows that you can make a good and funny movie about another boring sport: curling.While no one will be nominating "Men With Brooms" for any awards, it's a surprisingly watchable, funny movie that follows the good, old-fashioned 'reunite the underdogs' sports movie formula with a bit of "Red Green"esque Canadian men making gentle fun of themselves. Sadly, I think it never saw an American release, but its worth adding to anyone's collection of funny sports movies.
Even the performances in this movie break above the usual sports/romantic comedy level. Paul Gross (who I have sadly never seen in "Due South") plays a convincingly cynical sports star come home to small-town Ontario. Leslie Nielsen breaks typecast for a crotchety, but still-funny former curling star, and Bob Bainborough (Dalton Humphrey on "Red Green") steals his scenes as a curling announcer reminiscent of a less-grating Bob Uecker in "Major League".
I recommend this movie for sports nuts, romantic comedy fans, and people with a soft spot for Canadian humor. I found it to be a pleasant surprise, and I'll bet you will too...