Review of Score: A Hockey Musical (2010) by Lynn E — 23 Oct 2010

It was pretty good in so far as I found it entertaining, but the movie did have a few issues... predominantly (for me at least, being a musician at my very core) the lyrics.

The lyrics to the songs actually made me cringe in my seat during multiple instances. They were filled with poorly-chosen rhyming words. The "rhyming" part wasn't the problem, but rather "poorly chosen" is the key term here. I'm not saying that there were no words to be found that could have fit. It's just that the words they used in many parts of songs sounded as though they were up late finishing the script the night before and, hyped up on coffee with blood-shot eyes, they turn to each other desperately and say "Man, we need a word right now that rhymes with [whatever]... Oh I know! We'll use [this]! It sucks but it's good enough.".

Yeah... that doesn't cut it for me. Usually during songs I found myself skipping ahead in my mind anticipating one word or another seeing it as the perfect fit, and when they finally sang out the rhyme, it was an entire let-down with the words they actually chose. The writers need a lesson in how syllables fit correctly into a song as well; in a few instances, I could have sworn these songs were written by a fifth-grader.

In addition to the above, the beginning of songs in the midst of scenes and/or conversations were often awkward with very little natural flow. It's not impossible to make songs and spoken words flow to and from each other -- and in fact the "flow FROM each other" worked well in most instances, flowing nicely out of songs and back into the scene, but... the beginning of songs were horribly awkward leading to more cringing on my part.

The characters were likable enough and Noah Reid did an excellent job skating, acting, and singing this one through. I found Allie MacDonald's acting to be great as well, but I think the whole character fell a little flat in some ways, not to knock a fellow Cape Bretoner of course. I don't blame Allie; I blame the writers of the "Eve" character. I think her part might have been designed to be cliché perhaps, but that cliché-nature really sapped something from the entire delivery.

I could have done without Olivia Newton John in the movie at all, and I actually found her singing to be ... well, "meh". I was definitely expecting more. But I found her acting and her character to be good enough.

Overall I think Noah Reid's performance made this movie outstanding in so many ways and in a way he is one of the biggest reasons I recommend watching this film (other than the fact that it's Canadian and I always like to support our own stuff). Also, the subject matter? Hockey? It just pulled me in and held me down in a captivating way. There is nothing quite like watching the sport I love as the central concept in a movie. If you're a hockey lover, it's worth seeing just for the entertainment value of the premise.

There was also some great humor in the movie as well which was worked into the movie in subtle but working ways.

Conclusion? See the movie, or if you don't in theaters, at least pay for it later on DVD release... skip the illegal downloads and contribute some money to a Canadian project that really did succeed on several levels. However, that being said, the movie could have improved on several key areas quite easily and delivered a far more spectacular performance all-round.