A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This movie is a travesty. As far as sequels go, I thought Blues Brothers 2000 was bad in a 'way too little way too late' kinda way. But, holy sh*t, this was bad. First, it has nothing to offer hockey fans. The film was made by people who don't know anything about hockey. Take the horrible coach characters. The figure skating guy is unbelievable as a coach and totally unfunny as a queer. He ruins the 'hockeyness' of the film. Second, this is a very bad film and should be stricken from the memory of anyone who enjoyed the original "Slapshot" or any hockey loving Canadian. Yes, Canadian, Americans couldn't tell the difference between hockey and disco dancing with all those goofy red and blue streaks all over the place on Fox. This is likely why this movie sucked so hard...it was made by Americans. Man I would rather watch the other American Hockey travesties like the idiotic chimp plays hockey film "Most Valuable Primate" or even Emelio-chimp in "D2: The Mighty Ducks" (yuck!) or even those boring bumholes in "Mystery, Alaska" than this frozen turd. This movie sucks the frozen poop out of a dead Eskimo.

The script for Slap Shot 2-Breaking the Ice should have been thoroughly reviewed over and over with a fine-tooth comb before they started filming. It was up against the awesome classic original and the writers and producers knew very well that fans of the original Slap Shot were just thirsting for a really funny and good follow up if one was going to be made at all. A control group of viewers who saw the original back in 1977 at the theater should have been consulted (Me, for one.) I'm only giving this movie a generous 3 stars out of 10, one for each of the Hanson Brothers. They deserved better than this. The message of hockey becoming too antiseptic and "entertainment" instead of sport was lost in the mess. I did NOT like the "hockey chick" thing with Jessica Steen playing the new female coach, and she had the personality of a doorstop. Stephen Baldwin must have come very cheap, but doesn't do the worst job. The skating sequences were all blurry and slow-mo cheesy, and NOT using Johnstown, PA, instead of Vancouver, B.C. for the shooting location was more than sad. By the way, didn't the team move to Minnesota at the end of the original Slap Shot??? They could have written something hilariously funny into the second one about the Hanson Brothers going home to Minnesota. (Note to readers: Steve Carlson and Jeff Carlson were born and raised in Virginia, Minnesota. Dave Hanson was born in Wisconsin.) If the writers and producers of the original "Slap Shot" want to brainstorm for another truly funny and more accurate sequel, they should consult with fans for ideas. ($100 dollar bills raining from the sky will happen first before another sequel ever does thanks to this one.) The bottom line is that moviegoers want more of the Hanson Brothers and old-time hockey than this. It would also increase the bottom line $$$, especially if it would have a theatrical release, and not be released straight-to-video (kiss of death.)

This movie has no originality, Paper thin characters, and a plot that missed the heart of the first movie. I don't even see how they can or would dare to call this a Slapshot movie. The original was all REAL HOCKEY this is 90% Computer Generated trash. The original was fall on the floor hilarious, I didn't even crack a smile at this waste. The director had his head up his rear when he was making this movie, because every time it shows the Charston Cheifs owner (BTW in the last movie didn't they move the Cheifs to Minnesota?) it is in a tight head shot. The whole idea of the first film was to have fun and bring the hockey attitude out and it did that very well. This plays out more like a D grade drama with some poorly executed jokes stolen from the original movie.F- Avoid like the plauge!

I went into this movie with very LOW expectations (after all, it IS a straight to video flick staring to the most marginal of the Baldwin boys). After viewing the film, I very happy to say I found the movie to be a worthy sequel to the 1977 classic (so long as you can overlook the cliché Hollywood sports movie ending). Over the years, people's fondness for the original has exaggerated the comedic aspect of the movie into more than it really was. I never really felt the original was a "comedy" (although with a few bits that are funny as hell). In line with that observation, this movie shouldn't really be labeled a comedy either. The thing that made the first movie great, was not the "comedy", but the fact that it captured a moment in sports history that (even at the time) has vanished. Combined with an ending that broke the rules for sports movies the original became a "classic". This sequel is not a classic (mostly due to its very predictable Hollywood ending), but this new version IS a good little sports movie that tells a good hockey story. Bottom line of this review is that I feel the movie was probably a bit cheated by not receiving a theatrical release, but it does shine as a top notch straight to video flick. At under $20, it's a good addition to the collection for fans of the original. As a newbe to the world of Slap Shot, it's worth a rent. Even my wife who hates hockey AND the original movie, liked this sequel.