Sticks and Stones

Good family friendly movie. The plot was a little cheesy, but not too over the top. Typical predictable story line, but isn't that the case with most movies anymore? It was interesting to see the anti American sentiment portrayed in a non-American film. How accurate was that to the actual events...I don't know.

Sports movies typically fall flat on their face trying to create dramatic action sequences. The casual viewer may buy it, but an actual player will say "that's so fake". This movie did a fairly good job IMO.

Goof: Not a spoiler because this has nothing to do with the plot. When discussing their "favorite game" the one kid says "1980 in Lake Placid, US vs Russia for the gold medal". This wasn't the gold medal game.

Kind of goof: There is a scene where the hockey coaches are taking slap shots and their shots are brutal. Either have someone stand in for that scene, or frame the scene so you don't see their shots. The camera angle was from the other end of the rink and behind them, so it would have been easy. Maybe the actors aren't hockey players? That's fine. Just modify the scene.

I really enjoyed watching this movie, mainly because I live in Fredericton and was proud that my city hosted such a great event for these poor kids from the U.S. who got mistreated for something they had no control over. I thought this movie was well acted, especially on the part of David Sutcliffe and newcomer Alex De Jordy who I thought gave a heartfelt performance as Jordy Martin. It was pretty cool to watch a movie that was taped in your hometown, which doesn't happy here very often and it was funny to watch them pretend to be in Boston when I could make out stores in the background that are down the street from my house here but to someone who isn't from Fredericton, they wouldn't know the difference. Either way, I thought this was a very cute movie.

All in all...excellent...It was very true to the story...though I did not care for how "French" the actor who played Premier Bernard Lord played it...Bernard Lord is definitely French but, does not speak with that marked of an accent as was portrayed in the film...it was my only criticism, the actor certainly favored him in looks, though...it was kind of funny to see houses and streets that I recognize being shown as the "USA." My nephew is a goalie in one of the street hockey scenes. We watched this movie when it was shown on TV on Feb 1st, 2008. We may be a bit biased but, we think it shows the spirit of the youth of Fredericton and the innate goodness of the people here in our region.

What was done to those American Boys was wrong, my son's are Canadian-American's. They were born in Canada to a US father who we are all together as a happy family. We currently live in a Northern Ontario town who are 70% French and we didn't know this when we moved here. I have been called "American" many of times, and I'm a Canadian with no rights to the US. The way Quebec treated those American Boys and Adults is WRONG! I'm hurt by how even my family and I have been treated in the town we live in now. We lost $130,000 because of the French saying "If we are going to go to an American store we will go to the bigger one" and others who won't shop American. This movie is great for those to see what its like, to see what my family has gone through. I hope and pray no one else will ever go with we have but for those not to move where we are at either. 5 star movie!!!