Mystery, Alaska (1999) – A small, hockey-obsessed town in Alaska wins the chance to bring the New York Rangers to town for a televised match.
Directed by Jay Roach Starring Russell Crowe, Hank Azaria, Burt Reynolds, Mary McCormack
Every so often I run into a movie that I really, REALLY want to like. It seems to have so much going for it that it just cries out to wrap my movie-loving arms around it. But not everything works out the way we hope they will.
“Mystery, Alaska” has a fun concept and a wonderful cast that give solid performances. Add Colm Meany, Lolita Davidovich, Maury Chaykin, Scott Grimes and Ron Eldard to the stars above, and you get a cast that should be able to sell the story with ease. Sadly, that’s all the movie has going for it.
According to the characters in the movie, Mystery is obsessed with hockey. So it’s a little bit of mystery why there is so little hockey actually in the movie. The bulk of it comes at the end when the Rangers (no actual NY Rangers agreed to be in the film) come to town. What we get is something that makes “The Mighty Ducks” look like documentary footage of professional hockey. Unrealistic, awkwardly directed and just generally absurd. Director Roach was just coming off of two Austin Power movies (International Man of Mystery, and The Spy Who Shagged Me) and doesn’t show any feel for the material at hand. I kept looking for a center to the story and it never felt like I found one. It’s not a sports movie, it’s not a coming of age movie, it’s not a romance, it’s not a comedy. There are bits of all of that here, but no connected whole.
So in the end, let’s put this in the “lazy weekend with nothing better to do” category. The movie isn’t awful, so if you have nothing better to do you could do a lot worse than a couple hours in Mystery, Alaska.
Why You Will Like It – A good cast working hard at creating characters you can care about.
Rating – ** 1/2 Almost Worth A Look
Stories Are My Life 
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