Anyone who is wildly obsessed with sports will probably find this movie hilarious and very relatable. The actors, particularly the lead Jim Gaffigan (Owen), inhabit their roles and make the cast of characters likable and human. Owen's friends agree to go with him on his annual pilgrimage to a High School hockey tournament in Wisconsin, and though they are all dedicated at first, they slowly grow tired of his antics (even his young protégé who at first looks up to him without question). Run-of-the-mill road trip movie hilarity ensues. The movie also has a great musical score.

Anyone who is wildly obsessed with sports will probably find this movie hilarious and very relatable. The actors, particularly the lead Jim Gaffigan (Owen), inhabit their roles and make the cast of characters likable and human. Owen's friends agree to go with him on his annual pilgrimage to a High School hockey tournament in Wisconsin, and though they are all dedicated at first, they slowly grow tired of his antics (even his young protégé who at first looks up to him without question). Run-of-the-mill road trip movie hilarity ensues. The movie also has a great musical score.

All those traits I listed above are good things. So why am I finding it so hard to find good things to say about this movie? Well, first, from a technical standpoint, all the dialogue is impossibly quiet while all the ambient noise is loud, so it's difficult to hear what people are saying even during the games where the crowd is screaming. But I can hear the score loud and clear, which is why I mentioned it in my "good" section. Maybe I would have liked more of the dialogue if I could have heard it, but even after turning the sound up all the way I could barely hear the dialogue (some of it was inaudible even then) and the music blasted out of my speakers with great force. This became really annoying, since I wanted to hear what people were saying because for at least thirty minutes I was baffled as to why anyone would watch this movie, let alone give it good reviews.

It's all well and good to be obsessed with something, and even the thought of leaving a boyfriend/girlfriend because he/she wasn't supportive of your obsession isn't unthinkable to me, but this guy was barely human. All he cared to think and talk about was Hockey; in particular the annual Wisconsin High School hockey tournament that is the focal point of his obsession. I get it, he wants to see kids play the sport and High School is purer than pro for most any sport because the kids are playing for love of the game and they're not corrupted by all the additional baggage that comes with being a STAR highly paid athlete. Here I can sympathize with our main character, because I love High School sports for this reason and I agree with him, but I really can't blame people for being repelled by him after awhile because there's nothing else to his life, he's obsessed with this tournament and it's all he talks about and he gets angry with people for not sharing his obsession. I would have been able to stand this road trip for about one day, tops, and I would have bailed on his ass too.

I can't say that I would have liked this movie more even with better sound, because honestly, nothing on the screen held my attention. I've watched movies with the sound turned off before so I have some ground to speak from here, and movies like "Irreversible" and "The Devil's Backbone," both of which I could only watch on bad quality VHS transfers without sound or subtitles, are mesmerizing because of the acting, directing, staging, sets, etc. This movie, I couldn't care less about any of it. Watching a bunch of guys argue with each other and eventually watching friendships dissolve didn't sway me, and though I suppose the message of the movie was supposed to be something about having to build a life beyond your obsessions before you let them run and ruin your life, I didn't get that because I didn't see a character arc (or maybe it's because I needed to HEAR it to get it, either way, it just didn't resonate with me). I could see what was happening and see that most of the hijinks were supposed to be funny, but they didn't make me laugh or even keep me entertained and I kept glancing at the clock to see if it was near the end of the movie yet so I could write this review and get it over with. For me, that says it all.

The movie was a chore to watch. Maybe if you can find a copy with better sound and you're a huge sports fan, you'll want to give it a go. Otherwise, stay far away.

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