To think after over 30 years the Hanson Brothers are still playing hockey for the Charlestown Chiefs. They all looked a little long in the tooth for that rugged sport. That's part of what did not make me buy into this film as a sequel.
They're the only ones that are back though. And it seems they never got to Minnesota as was promised in the original film. Stephen Baldwin is a player/coach and they're still the same lovable misfits who play Gonzo hockey. But Slapshot 2: Breaking The Ice has the team sold and moving again, this time to Omaha, Nebraska.
Where the guy who has now bought them millionaire Gary Busey who's big into family values thinks that hockey is way too violent for the kiddies. So he's forming a new league and is taking a leaf from the World Wrestling Federation. He's going to have a hero time, composed of clean cut college hockey players who will be the good guys and he's buying the Chiefs to function as the bad guys. The games will be like WWF matches only the good guys will always win. Watching the idea I thought it was as bad as the Recon unit always losing in Heartbreak Ridge. They've even hired a choreographer for the matches.
The money looks good, but there's something missing of course. The one who takes it worse is David Paetkau who is hoping to get picked up by a National Hockey League franchise.
Sad to say the idea of a WWF type hockey entertainment is a bad idea and sadder to say for Slapshot 2: Breaking The Ice it translates to the screen. Everyone here knows it and goes through the motions. This is one far stretch from the free wheeling original Slapshot film.
Even the Hanson Brothers can't save it.
