The VHS/DVD release for MYSTERY ALASKA is May 9. I've seen one site list May 2, but all the rest are listing May 9.

From the information I can glean, there will be no isolated score.

Prepare to rent.

And I liked the music because it effectively conveyed the emotions of the protagonists. From the driving drum beat to be the best hockey players on ice to the introspective strings as a man learns and accepts his frustrating limitations.

There are things I would change about the movie. The language, especially among the children, is inappropriate. It's like David Kelly (Ally McBeal, The Practice) used all the curse words he had to remove from TV characters mouths and packed them all into this one movie. And he had so many left over, he had to have children utter a few profanities.

I liked the performance of all the actors as well. Russell Crow has been mentioned, the actress that played his wife is the quintesintial hometown sweatheart turned mom, Hank Azaria does the Goldblum thing as the small town guy who left and came back with a big surprise, Burt Reynolds played an excellent a$$O, Colm Meany has become my favorite character actor and the guy who played the fat lawyer was good, too.

I've read reviews that compared the story line to Rocky and Hoosiers. I never saw Hoosiers, but I've heard high praise for it. The basic bare plot line is similar to Rocky, but also to Rudy, American Flyers, and that great little movie with the big Indianapolis 500 bicycle race and the four "townies." As has been stated before, there are only about 20 master plot lines in the world -- this one does get used a lot. But it's the other plots, writing, acting and music that are woven around this basic plot line that make a movie good or bad.

It worked for me. I didn't find it predictable, but perhaps I'm too guilible. I actually held my breath at the climatic slap shot and felt the same emotions as the characters in the movie.

It obvioiusly didn't work for a lot of other people. I'm hoping that this release during the Stanley Cup playoffs will stimulate rentals. I think it's possible that this could be one of those that failed at the box office, but takes off as a rental. If so, then maybe we'll see a score release. Meanwhile, I'll be stringing my cables between my VCR and my cassette recorder on or about May 9 to get a recording of this music.

Our tastes are similar in many areas, H, but we just may have to part company on this one. But that's okay. I just hope more people see it my way.

By the way, I'm not going to buy it ($80 VHS $30 DVD), but I will rent it more than a couple of times. I wouldn't hesitate to buy the soundtrack, though.

Marc
NP: The Challenge