Don't get me wrong, I love this movie, it's one of my favourite movies of all time but did anyone else notice how bad of a skating Crowe was. After he took a shot in the saturday game and was stopped, he had to use alot of effort to turn. It looked like he was going to fall down.
shareI agree (I am really NordicGirl:)). But he is from Australia:)
shareHe's actually from New Zealand, and even though I am Swedish, I have lived in Australia since I was four. There are some really awesome hockey players here, lots of rinks and many people have been skating all their lives here. So your comment was really ignorant.
sharehey may have been born in New Zealand but he has lived most of his life in Australia and considers himself australian
shareWasn't his character supposed to be a weak skater?
Besides, I don't know how much ice they have in Australia...it's not exactly Canada...or Alaska.
Ah, the searing kiss of hot lead, how I missed you. I mean, I think I'm dying.
U gotta love hollywoods attempt at hockey... Russel Crowe using his stick as a rudder sounds right to me...
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Merle
Crowe never skated before and wasn't horrible for a newbie. At least they didn't stick a double in there and no close-ups of him. I respect the fact that he gave it his best.
shareehh yeah i laughed at how he stopped by pointing his toes in like a beginner..... but yeah hes an aussie there surfers/swimmers not ice skaters lol
shareHate to tell you this, but "our boy" Russ is a Kiwi (New Zealander, for the Northern Hemisphere folks). New Zealand gets plenty of snow and ice. Still, Russ gives it a good Anzac go.
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Wasn't the 2002 Olympic gold medal short track speed skater from Australia? (yes he was, in the race when eveyone fell down except him because he was too far behind to get stuck in the pile up, both in his semifinal and the final) - see, there are some great ice skaters in Australia.
"Enough of that technical talk, Foo!"
PS - have to weigh in again. Although Russell Crowe was born in Wellington, New Zealand, he moved away from there and to Australia as a small child, so for all purposes, especially in terms of whether he learned how to ice skate or not, he grew up in Australia and still lives in Australia.
Quote from his imdb bio: "Born in New Zealand, Russell has made his home in Australia since he was a small child."
Also want to weigh in with another thought. When Disney made their recent remake of "Miracle On Ice" they cast minor league hockey players as the 1980 Olympic hockey teams, CORRECTLY figuring it would be easier to teach hockey players how to act than to teach actors how to play hockey. Perhaps this was a dig at Russell Crowe, an excellent actor who, quite frankly, didn't know how to play hockey all that well. But faked it, as any good actor would. Anyway, in the Disney "Miracle" film, the finest casting decision was to have Buzz Schneider played in the film by his real-life son, Bill Schneider. The result of casting skilled hockey players is that the hockey scenes were amazingly realistic, even choreographed from game films to re-create specific plays. Compare that to Mystery Alaska, where the acting was far superior but the hockey was, well, fake! I personally enjoyed Mystery Alaska more, but because of the better acting, funny script, interesting plot, etc. But if I had been looking for realistic hockey I would have just watched my local ECHL team, the San Diego Gulls, and not some fictional movie. But, personally, I like movies and I really liked Mystery Alaska because it was funny and was about hockey.
"Enough of that technical talk, Foo!"
As far as Hollywood's take on hockey goes, this wasn't too bad. I think that generally, many actors grew up playing maybe baseball or football, and so they sort of already have the proper feel for how to 'act' in that manner. Not a heck of a lot of them have much experience playing hockey. As a Canadian, it's something I can clearly identify. Unlike football, which most Yank sport fans could likely talk circles around me in.
shareI know you wrote this three years ago, but man...
Miracle on Ice has awful on ice action sequences...there is no flow, no proper sequencing.
Mystery Alaska had fantastic on ice action combined with coherent game play with emphasis on situations. Mystery Alaska is one of the best sports movies I've seen as far as depicting the action on "ice" or field or court.
We all know he's from New Zealand, but he was raised in Australia...so ergo, no ice.
sharehe has lived in australia most of his life and considers himself australian
shareThere are lots of awesome hockey players in Australia. Russell Crowe is a new Zealander - and there are also awesome hockey players there. Check out the Ice Blacks!
Australia has lots of rinks and many, many people skate.
http://www.theaihl.com/leagues/front_pageAIHL.cfm?clientID=3856&leagueID=11464
Did you know that prior to making this movie, Russell had NEVER skated before?! Plus he was told that he possesses 'weak' ankles no less. I of course didn't notice any akwardness of his because I was too smitten!
shareLol the only time you see him skate hes usually pushing around a net.
"Fly the white flag of war!"
You're right come to think of it! I myself am terrified of skating, I feel like at any second I'm going to come crashing down. So my hat is off to Russell for taking on a challenge like this. His most recent 'achievement' was mastering the violin for Master and Commander which he said was the hardest thing he's ever done! He seems to play it pretty well.
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being a guy i wasn't smitten -- but everyone knows r. crowe is one heckuva actor AND he skated okay! the entire movie was pretty good in all aspects.
shareI don't get it. Why did they even cast him? It's such bad judgement to cast someone who never skated before - to be in a hockey movie!! Seriously, what were they thinking? He was stopping like someone who started skating yesterday - and his turns were really awkward... and then they play and almost win the Rangers? Ridiculous. And by the look on his face I wasn't convinced he loved the game either! Should cast someone who truly loves hockey. This was NOT a great hockey movie. No passion in his eyes. Only fear. Am I the only one who thought he shouldn't be in this movie?
sharePretty much.
shareWe don't get a lot of ice in Australia. It has something to do with our warm climate...
shareWhats the warm climate got to do with anything. Most hockey rinks are indoors and the temperature can be controlled to keep the ice frozen.
sharefamilyguy001, we hardly have any ice rinks here either. the whole of melbourne only has one that's open to the public, and it's hardly ever open and in pretty shabby condition (since no one is really interested in ice related stuff due to the climate).
shareIf you're referring to the IceHouse, there are two massive rinks there, and then there's Oakleigh. There used to be one in Ringwood called Iceland and one in StKilda called St Moritz. Plus there are heaps of inline rinks that ice-skaters also train on. We have an awesome hockey league in the AIHL, and Melbourne Ice is one of the best hockey teams in Oz. We also have a lot of awesome inline hockey teams. Maybe you should get out more.
shareI completely agree, this is a great movie and I'm surprised it didn't do better at the box office. But then again, most people don't know a great movie when they see one.
As for Crowe's skating, it can't be any worse than the local (former) UHL team, Danbury Trashers. I've seen a few of their games and most of them couldn't skate to save their lives.
Anyway, who cares about the actual skating abilities, it's the story itself really pulls you in.
"A Rebel in Yankee Land!"
Vicki
> Wasn't his character supposed to be a weak skater?
Yeah, something like that, weak or slow skater. I think one of the characters even says to him something like "Don't worry, every team needs a 'thumper', Johnny."
Like someone above said, I've heard in several interviews that Crowe never ice skated a day in his life before this role. And I think he himself said something about how hard it is to skate if you're only learning for the first time at 35. You'll never be really good at it, but you can get by.
JP
I was there....i worked as an extra for four months on this movie while living in Canmore Alberta canada. Russel could not even stand up on skates.....it was really hard to film as every shot had his double come in to make it look like he could skate.
take care
jonathan
I think this whole argument can be summed up with one issue - poor casting. Acting and becoming a character should be more than growing a beard or wearing a particular shirt.
How many times have we seen actors putting on or dropping a ton of weight, learning to play an instrument, correctly use a weapon, look comfortable playing a sport...
Why the hell couldn't either
A) They hire an actor who could either already skate or was able to learn for the part
or
B) Russell Crowe take a couple months to learn enough not to look like Bambi on ice?
Crowe put on the pounds for Body of Lies, put on the muscle for Gladiator, learned a bit of boxing for Cinderella Man, learned a little music for Master and Commander, etc...
It just screams laziness to me, and frankly I would have expected more from him.
I loved this movie but I gotta agree, watchinhg Russell skate was hysterical. It's the worst skating I've seen since the god awful Rob Lowe's attempt in the incredibly BAD Youngblood. At least they didn't try to mask Crowe's lack of skating ability by always showing him skating in slow motion like they did with Lowe.
shareHa. It's been so long since I've seen this, so I can't remember how his skating was. It's too bad that they didn't use someone who already knew how.
Skating isn't something that you can just learn in a couple goes. A lot of people who I skated with as a kid, never progressed past just basic moves, and wouldn't be able to fake it for something like this - even after decades of doing it.
If he had never skated before the movie, then I thought he did a fantastic job. Sure, he's no Paul Newman. But I can't believe NOBODY mentioned how awful Emilio Estevez was in the 3rd(?) Mighty Ducks movie when he was playing roller hockey. That whole sequence was heavily cut and anybody who can skate could tell he couldn't skate. Russell Crowe is definitely a better skater than Emilio Estevez. And before you all start saying roller blading isn't the same as ice skating - if you can ice skate, you can roller blade on a similar level.
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