The Movie
My friend Annie, whose husband played professional hockey on the minor-league circuit, told me about this movie, and I knew I had to check it out. There are very few movies about hockey that I haven't seen, and I wasn't about to let this one get away, especially with the intriguing concept of a documentary that follows a minor-league team while they travel to road games.

Now, having worked in minor-pro sports before, I know a good deal of how such set-ups work, in comparison to the big-time pro sports leagues. So coming into this movie, I wasn't expecting to find a secret like the meaning of life, but a look behind the locker-room door would have been nice. Instead, Road Hogs keeps something of an arms-length distance between the camera and the team. Having the team's general manager as the executive producer and the media relations director as a producer might have something to do with it.

During the NHL lock-out, the Rockford IceHogs of the United Hockey League opened road trips to cameras, who followed them on the bus, in the locker room and on the ice, as they traveled to face teams in Indiana, Michigan and Missouri, as well as to their cross-state rivals, the Quad City Mallards. Unfortunately, there's not much learned during these road trips than what's seen on the nightly sports report. Perhaps if the team wasn't involved, there'd be better stories.

Actually, the stories aren't bad, it's just the way they are told. Yappy pest Jason Ralph provides some quality sound-bites, the team's struggles with budget and other troubles on the road are interesting, and the UHL became a hot-spot for locked-out NHLers looking to stay in shape. But outside of the game footage, of which there is plenty, most of the stories are told through sit-down interviews, rather than shown. It feels like the cameras didn't see hardly anything interesting if it didn't happen on ice.

For example, tales like the wheels falling off the team bus should have been seen on-screen, rather than shared in an interview. It seems like the cameras were limited as to what they could see. Sure, the concept of only covering road trips is limiting, as the players only travel, eat and play, but what were the players doing when they were on their own? Those scenes would have added tremendously to the movie, even if they were boring, as it would have given a fuller picture of the players' lives.

In the end, the film covers more of the on-ice season than the off-ice aspects, and feels like a very in-depth year-end highlights video instead of a behind-the-scenes documentary. I find it hard to believe that there weren't fights between teammates or off-hour shenanigans. Perhaps the better story happened at home, when the players had more free time, but we'll have to wait for someone who doesn't work for the team to produce it.

The DVD
A one-DVD release packaged in a standard black keepcase, Road Hogs starts with an animated, full-frame main menu, that offers a choice of audio tracks, scene selections and deleted scenes. Whoever chose the music for the menu was a bit confused it seemed, as it fits better on "The X-Files" than a hockey documentary.

The scene selection menu breaks the film down with a list of text titles, one for each opponent, the opening and the finish. An option to choose either a PG- or R-rated audio track is the only language choice available, as there are no subtitles and no closed captioning.

The Quality
The video quality of the full-frame transfer is quite good, especially during the sit-down interviews, which are crystal clear and sharp. The "on the scene" footage, on the other hand, is a bit soft, and can be blurry during the hockey action, or grainy and dull while on the team bus. Color is nice, with decent detail, though some edge enhancement is noticeable. The only big issue is the actual quality of the camera work during games, which is rather weak, often missing the important action.

The audio, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, is good for much of the film, though some distortion creeps in at times. Normally heard during the interviews, it results in some ringing, but it's only found during a small portion of the overall film. The rest is center-focused dialogue, with some game sound that's recorded simply.

The Extras
The only bonus feature available is 32 minutes of deleted scenes that can be viewed in a large group or in eight bunches. The majority of the clips are disjointed moments that are grouped by game, thought the final set is over eight minutes of Ralph annoying his teammates while manning a camera on the team bus.

The Bottom Line
If you love hockey or are curious about the life of a minor-league athlete, Road Hogs is worth checking out, but the story isn't told with much in the way of style or skill, and focuses too much on the on-ice action, which makes it unlikely to appeal to anyone outside of the core audience. The DVD presentation is decent considering the production, but doesn't have much in the way of extras. Slap Shot, which covers the same ground, is certainly more entertaining, but if you're looking for something new or real, this is one of your only options.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.