Mystery, Alaska

The amateur ice hockey team of a small Alaskan town ends up playing an exhibition game against the New York Rangers. The town and the team are invented; the NHL club is real. David E. Kelley wrote it and Jay Roach directed. Roach was known at the time for the Austin Powers films, and this was his attempt to step out of comedy. Disney bought the script in 1997 under the title The Game and renamed it to avoid confusion with another film of that name. The town was built from scratch, on the site of a former strip coal mine near Canmore in Canada. Exteriors were shot in Banff National Park and the rink sequences at the Canmore Recreation Centre. Russell Crowe plays the town sheriff and the team's former star, with Burt Reynolds as a judge and Hank Azaria as the man who left town. Who it is for: viewers who prefer a portrait of a town to a sports-film formula. The best stretch is not the game but the town preparing for it. Who it is not for: anyone who wants credible hockey. The common critical complaint was that the ice sequences are thin and unconvincing.