Youngblood

One of my favorite underdog sports films. Swayze and Lowe are phenomenal

This film is well cast, and acted, there is a story, and the game of hockey is made clear even to those who are not fans. Some of the photography is way above average, for example the scene of puck shooting exercises by "Youngblood". The relationships between two brothers, father son, and two friends Judd Lowe and Patrick Swayze are all well presented. There was not a dull moment in this film. But above all this was a good vehicle to show Judd Lowe's talent. He really held the movie. It is a shame that he lost the momentum of his career by becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol.

Of course it did not hurt to have Patrick Swayze, Ed Lauter, Cynthia Gibb, and even Keanu Reeves. I am comparing it to another movie about young men whose dream is to join a professional sports team (Baseball) "Sugar" (2008) which was slow moving, Youngblood has a good pace, and flow of events.

Dean Youngblood (Rob Lowe) is a skilled teen hockey player in upstate New York. He gets a tryout for a junior league team in Hamilton. His father refuses but his older brother Kelly convinces him otherwise. Kelly had tried but got injured. Dean's speed beats out the brute Racki in the eyes of coach Chadwick. The team led by captain Derek Sutton (Patrick Swayze) hazes the rookie. The coach's daughter Jessie (Cynthia Gibb) is intrigued. His landlady Miss McGill (Fionnula Flanagan) has boarded and seduced many hockey players in the past.

This is a pretty average coming-of-age movie. Rob Lowe is a charming young guy. Gibb is winsome. Swayze plays a good older mentor like he does in Dirty Dancing. Keanu Reeves gets a small role early in his career. It has a couple of memorable scenes like the hazing. It's not particularly outstanding but it does the job.

I loved it in terms of hockey. But at times found it quite cheesy and poorly written, but in terms of hockey I liked it but defiantly could've been better. I find most hockey movies to appeal an American audience tends to always need to include fighting and violence -- although I do agree the fighting adds emotion, but I'm the one hockey fan that can live without the fighting.

What I found cheesy was before I watched the movie I thought the title was deemed towards the premise being a young hockey player hoping to go pro, but making Youngblood the character's last name. I think what they should've done was given him a true last name that hockey fans would take seriously. But the other thing was should've done the whole junior thing a lot differently because it's not a tryout for juniors, you get drafted or invited. Also, trading in sports always makes the story better as I wish they traded Racki away or Youngblood is traded away because the team didn't believe in him or a team gave him a second chance because they saw what he could do.

Other than that, it's a good hockey movie. I just think the movie would be a lot more relevant had they done things right in a genuine hockey perspective.

I cannot imagine how anyone would think of this movie as a 'bad movie'. It showed just how much hockey players have to go through to become successful. The acting was not the best but it was still interesting to watch. It also did not hurt that Rob Lowe was really good looking. 2.5 out of 4