Surprised it was rated R

I remember seeing this movie way back when it was first released in '99, and I'm now revisiting it for the first time.

I'm really surprised they went for the R-rating with this film. It's a strange movie in that, on its surface, it feels largely like a family film. Just consider the premise: Small-town pond hockey team plays as the underdogs against the New York Rangers. That has "family film" written all over it!

But the filmmakers decided to interject enough language and sexual content to get an R rating, and I have to think that's a big reason this film only made $8 million at the box office. I'm not at all against R-rated films, but in this case the stuff that earned Mystery, Alaska its rating truly did seem unnecessary. If they had toned that down they could've gone for the family market and presumably made a lot more money.