Men with Brooms

There's not much I can say about this film that a true critic would. I can't tell you about the depth in characters or plot, or how unrealistic it might/might not be. I can tell you, though, I did enjoy watching this movie Saturday afternoon in my PJ's with my little sister. In the summer we kids really have nothing better to do sometimes than watch movies and go biking. Only Macy has a bike, so we stayed in one particular day. Roaming through or scalable-less TV stations we found a delightfully odd movie called "Men With Brooms". It was quirky, it was cute, it was all we needed to have a good few hours together. Okay,so it's not the greatest comedy ever written- it serves it's purpose of entertaining and that's all that matters to me. Watch it, enjoy it, don't examine it!

This is the kind of flick you watch when you don't want to think too hard but you still want some intelligent humour and a good story. Some jokes are hidden in sarcasm, satire or poignancy, and you might miss them, so it's worth paying attention. The style of this movie's humour may have been a bit before its time, as it resembles currently popular TV shows like Scrubs, The Office and Psych. Even the many colourful characters, including bit-parts, are very believable in today's small-town culture. Do not miss the beginning or the rest wont hold together. Although it lags a bit in the middle, it still satisfies because there's enough variety along the way, that the ending isn't quite as nauseating as you might fear. The soundtrack is excellent and the out-takes at the end wrap it well. For Paul Gross fans, pay attention to his facial expressions - he's more animated compared to many of his other roles.

OK, so this was not exactly high art. But let's be realistic, it is a movie with Paul Gross and Leslie Nielson in it. I was not expecting the English patient.... What was here was a good little comedy movie that poked fun at a lot of Canadian idiosyncrasies, had realistic characters and had a bit of fun with a known Canadian (and international) sport. It was nice that most of the characters had some sort of flaw, but still managed to sort things out and overcome. Better yet, it was nice to see Leslie Nielson actually act in a movie with a character who had depth instead of his normal two dimensional slapstick characters. Mostly, I enjoyed this movie because it was not a complete cast of perfect people, and it did have fun with a lot of Canadian stereotypes. It is always good when we can laugh at ourselves. Like I said, not high art but that was not what we were looking for.

If you just want a pizza and beer movie and a few laughs with mates then this is a good choice.

Just offensive enough to feel adult, just enough comedy to make you laugh, and enough curling to remind you you're watching a sports movie.

Is it a classic? No.

But, is it a turkey? No way.

It's an unusual sports movie with lots of silliness and little one-liners and it actually does the send up of curling very well.

All in all it shines for its small town values, it's heart, and good performances.

A nice break from the norm.

I not only wanted to like this movie, I tried to like this movie. I failed.

The subject is curling, so you might think that the script would be as offbeat as the sport. Wrong. This is the most formulaic piece of claptrap I've seen in a long time. "A group of wacky misfits must get back together to beat the odds and win an emotional tournament while putting old ghosts to rest and reconciling with estranged loved ones." It could be the plot of practically every sports movie ever made, but they usually aren't done this dumbly.

Cliches abound: the feisty single mother harbouring a secret crush; the dopehead teammate who can't keep his girlfriends' names straight; the crusty old coach who is also one teammate's father; the henpecked husband who must eventually find his backbone; the dweeby couple trying to conceive a baby; and of course the male lead who must choose between two women (sisters, no less) and atone for past wrongs on the curling rink. YAWN.

Speaking of the copulating couple, whoever saw two people trying to have a kid do the act right in front of his male buddies? And by the way, a woman can only get pregnant once a month, so why does this couple hop on each other in every second scene throughout the whole movie? She'd come running in screaming, "It's time!" and he'd unzip and hump frantically for 5 seconds and then she'd run off again. Hi-lar-ious.

Poop jokes? You couldn't count how many.

I was so bored watching this thing that I started to root for the robo-curler they call Juggernaut. In spite of his expressionless face and mechanical movements, he was the liveliest thing in the movie.

I give it a 3 on 10. The outtakes at the end were the only funny moments I saw.