While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Youngblood is a derivative sports film starring Rob Lowe as an American farm boy who travels to Canada to play junior Ice Hockey.It is a kind of story that features his new team mates humiliating him in an initiation ceremony but they all later bond as they frequently indulge in puerile humour. Youngblood quickly gets seduced by the cougar landlady who does this with all the ice hockey players staying with her, he also flirts with the hard nosed coach's daughter, clashes with a brutish player of an opposing team, which leads to a team mate getting a serious injury leading to a crisis of confidence and conscience among our hero. Youngblood runs back to his farm where he is toughened up by his family and he returns just in time to the important end of season game.The film is a slice of mid 1980s cheese with lots of Rockyesque overtones. It features some rising talent such as Patrick Swayze as well Keanu Reeves, who would one day jump out of a plane together and fight for a parachute.It is a shame that the film lacks heart and conviction. Lowe also appears to be too bland, cast more for his sex appeal which must be the only reason for that jockstrap scene.

This film is well cast, and acted, there is a story, and the game of hockey is made clear even to those who are not fans. Some of the photography is way above average, for example the scene of puck shooting exercises by "Youngblood". The relationships between two brothers, father son, and two friends Judd Lowe and Patrick Swayze are all well presented. There was not a dull moment in this film. But above all this was a good vehicle to show Judd Lowe's talent. He really held the movie. It is a shame that he lost the momentum of his career by becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol.Of course it did not hurt to have Patrick Swayze, Ed Lauter, Cynthia Gibb, and even Keanu Reeves. I am comparing it to another movie about young men whose dream is to join a professional sports team (Baseball) "Sugar" (2008) which was slow moving, Youngblood has a good pace, and flow of events.

Rob Lowe is way too much the matinée idol type to ever be believable as a hockey player. In fact that's the story of Youngblood, that of a player who values his looks a lot more than mixing it up on the ice to help win a game.Try as I might I just can't see Rob Lowe as a hockey player, even one who won't get down and dirty. He's a speedy fellow on the ice and it's his speed that gets him a berth on a Canadian minor league hockey team, on which he has teammates like Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves. The best scene in the film is where Rob Lowe gets literally raped by the unofficial landlady of the team, Fionula Flannagan. Apparently she gets first dibs on all the new hockey players in helping them keep their equipment in working order. Considering before Lowe, she had both Swayze and Reeves, I'd say she's quite the mechanic.Rob has a more serious involvement with Cynthia Gibb who is the daughter of Coach Ed Lauter. But she's also daddy's little girl which doesn't help matters.Our Canadian reviewers say that Youngblood is a gross distortion of Canadian hockey. I'm in no position to comment, but I've seen enough to know that it's a sport where violence is the norm and if you can't mix it up and are not willing to risk your good looks, you won't last too long.Youngblood is now 23 years old and assuming Rob Lowe's character had a decent sized playing career, I guarantee that Rob today would not look like the fellow who worked for President Martin Sheen in the West Wing.

Dean Youngblood doesn't want to get stuck on the farm like his father Blane and his brother Kelly. He has the chance to make it in minor league hockey, and maybe go on to a major league team such as New York. But to make it with the Hamilton Mustangs, he has to compete with a big tough guy named Racki who enjoys knocking people down.Dean is not tough, but he has speed, so he does get to be a Mustang. He goes through the usual hazing that "the new guy" gets, and he must persevere every step of the way or risk either going back to the farm or ending up in Medicine Hat or some other remote place that I'm sure the longtime residents like.Dean does make one good friend on the team, Derek Sutton. But there is much to learn about being a competitor, especially in a league where violence is accepted as a fact of life (now, correct me if I'm wrong, but if bench-clearing brawls are frowned on in American baseball, how can they actually be encouraged by even the hockey coaches?). Dean must make important moral choices, and then he must think about what his future will be with each possible option.Dean also has a chance at romance. Jessie Chadwick is the adorable but feisty coach's daughter. And his landlady is Miss McGill (think "Bull Durham"). Which one do you think he'll choose? Or will one of them choose him?I know little about hockey. I have seen the "Mighty Ducks" series, and I was watching when a team from my state won the Stanley Cup. So I don't know enough to evaluate the on-ice action. I do know the finale was exciting if somewhat formulaic, with effective use of slow-motion.As for performances, I thought there were some really good moments. Cynthia Gibb did the best job overall, in my opinion. Ed Lauter also had some good scenes as the coach, and a couple of scenes with Dean and Sutton were really good. Jim Youngs and Eric Nesterenko, as Dean's brother and father, both had several scenes alone with Dean which were quite good.This wasn't a comedy, but I liked the humor in several scenes with Jessie. The funniest part of the whole movie: Jessie sneaking a portable radio into school to listen to Dean's game. Close behind was a scene where the public was skating in what I thought was a rink, but it may have been the arena where the Mustangs' games were played.I couldn't shake the feeling that this was another one of those average movies with the usual formula. But it had enough to make me reasonably happy, even if it wasn't a classic.