Line #16 Film/MenWithBrooms


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2kryl1p33kc0zw61zw3fcrkoldt.png]]
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3	Describe ''Men With Brooms'' he-[[TapOnTheHead smacked in the head with a curling stone]]
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5	A 2002 RomanticComedy movie starring Creator/PaulGross, Creator/MollyParker, and Creator/LeslieNielsen, and seemingly half of the cast of ''Series/DueSouth''. Chris Cutter, once a local Curling legend until he left town without explanation (not to mention leaving his fiancée at the altar), comes back home for his curling coach's funeral. His curling coach's main wish, according to his will, is for Cutter to bring the old team back together to try and win the Golden Broom, the Curling equivalent to UsefulNotes/TheStanleyCup, as well as for him to reconcile with his estranged (not to mention [[CloudCuckooLander strange]]) dad -- famed curling coach Gordon Cutter, played by Leslie Nielsen. HilarityEnsues.
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7	Followed in 2010 by a one-season TV show sequel of the same name.
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9	----
10	!!This film contains examples of:
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12	* AlcoholicParent: Amy, although when the movie takes place, she is going to [[TropaholicsAnonymous AA meetings]].
13	* ArtisticLicenseLaw: {{Lampshaded}} and {{averted}} at the reading of Donald Foley's will. The lawyer admits that there really ''isn't'' any way his requests regarding the team and the stone could be considered legally binding; everybody goes along with it out of consideration for the deceased.
14	* BrickJoke: [[spoiler: The loan shark]].
15	* {{Calvinball}}: While Curling is a very real sport, the version shown in the movie evidently includes rules for such unlikely situations as [[spoiler: the ashes of a dead man]] landing on the button.
16	* ChivalrousPervert: Lennox, who even bothered to {{lampshade}} it.
17	-->'''Lennox''':'' Hey man, even if I wanted to, I've got principles. She has to be conscious, to begin with...''
18	* CloudCuckooLander: Gordon Cutter, Strombeck to a lesser degree.
19	* CurseCutShort: "Let me tell you about vibrators--" [[TapOnTheHead WHANG]]
20	* CrypticConversation: Neil's wife appears to be a fan of this. {{Lampshaded}} [[DeadpanSnarker very flatly]] by Neil every time it happens.
21	* DeadpanSnarker: Neil, notably, only when talking to his wife.
22	* TheDitz: Lennox's "rent-a-girlfriend", and a male example in the form of Strombeck.
23	* [[TheDutifulSon The Dutiful Daughter]]: Amy helped her father recover the Magellan Stones while her sister Julie went to school and eventually became an astronaut.
24	* EagleLand: A mix of both types with Alexander "[[RedBaron The Juggernaut]]" Yount, whose team wears shiny jumpsuits, enters the stadium to rock music and pyrotechnics, and has ''cheerleaders''. Though he's ''very'' competitive and takes himself ''way'' too seriously, he also asks the officials to let Gordon redo a botched shot, and then congratulates him on a good game.
25	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Lennox. Admittedly low standards, but he has them.
26	* EverythingsLouderWithBagpipes: The movie opens with a bagpipe tune that ends up being a funeral dirge.
27	* {{Expy}}: The American Space Agency, filling in for UsefulNotes/{{NASA}}.
28	* FirstGirlWins: Averted in both cases where it comes up, though in neither case did it seem like the First Girl was particularly trying.[[note]] Cutter's ex-fiancée pretty clearly hates him for leaving her, and is too busy preparing [[ItMakesSenseInContext to leave Earth]], and Bucyk's wife was cheating on him with his assistant through the whole movie anyways. She does seem impressed that he finally grew a spine, though by that point he's already walking out the door.[[/note]]
29	* TheFunInFuneral: A less-than thirty second scene that crams about five or ten different mishaps in while introducing Neil Bucyk. What should be [[ASimplePlan a straightforward cremation]] goes horribly (and hilariously) awry when:
30	** The conveyer belt's motor shorts out,
31	** causing the recording of AmazingFreakingGrace to play in reverse,
32	** along with causing the coffin to start moving ''away'' from the oven and towards the end of the belt.
33	** They try to keep the coffin from falling off the end, only for it to tip over onto its end, the lid popping open leading to
34	** Coach Foley's body almost falling out,
35	** only to be caught by Neil grabbing the Coach by the face and throwing him ''back'' in the coffin,
36	** only for the belt to start moving the ''right'' direction,
37	** Neil's coat to get caught in the lid of the coffin when it slams shut,
38	** Dragging him onto the conveyer belt with the casket and being dragged towards the oven, [[BlackComedy all while the grieving family sits and watches]], ''[[BlackComedy horrified]]''. All of this in a scene that again, lasts ''less than 30 seconds''.
39	* TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry: a variation: Both sisters are The Smart Sister; one happens to be the Prodigal Daughter (went to college, joined [[{{Expy}} The American Space Agency]], became an astronaut) while the other is [[TheDutifulSon The Dutiful Daughter]], who stayed home with the family and cared for their father. Also, [[LoveTriangle both are romantic interests]] for Chris Cutter.
40	* GracefulLoser: [[spoiler: The Juggernaut]], even {{lampshaded}} in passing as part of a BrickJoke moments later.
41	* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Joanne, the "[[InsistentTerminology Rent-A-Girlfriend]]", though Lennox never seems to actually do the things that one traditionally does with a prostitute, so she could just be the type of escort where sex isn't part of the deal.
42	* KarmaHoudini: Linda Bucyk, who spends much of the movie cheating on her husband. Though it is strongly indicated at the end of the film that he's leaving her, it has less to do with the affair and more to do with her general abusiveness (and his own developing relationship with [[TheDitz Joanne]]).
43	* LiteralMinded: When Cutter is hesitant to reform the curling team.
44	-->'''Lennox''': So I guess the uh... [[{{pun}} burning]] question is, are you gonna pick up that stone?
45	-->'''Cutter''': [[ItMakesSenseInContext It's on fire.]]
46	-->'''Lennox''': I meant metaphorically.
47	* LoveTriangle: Chris, Julie, and Amy are in a love triangle, with Chris being the focus. Julie points out to Amy that, strictly speaking, there ''is'' no triangle since Chris left her years previously and she's grown to pretty much hate him [[{{Tsundere}} despite their one-night-stand hookup.]]
48	* MacGuffin: The Magellan Stones, having been dumped into the lake by Chris Cutter before he skipped town in the BackStory, are several types:
49	** Mineral MacGuffin: Well, they ''are'' basically polished stones with handles attached.
50	** ImDyingPleaseTakeMyMacGuffin: Donald Foley dies immediately after retrieving the last of the stones. His will states that his ashes are to be placed in the last Magellan Stone, his old curling team reformed, and for them to take the stones and make another attempt to win the Golden Broom.
51	* MembershipToken: The [[ThemedTattoos matching beaver tattoos]] on all four guys [[spoiler: and Amy]].
52	* MisplacedNamesPoster: See above. Paul Gross is ''not'' the one on the left.
53	* MundaneMadeAwesome: When his wife asks him, for the second or third time, to pass her the beets during dinner, Neil slides it to her like a curling stone, bouncing it off several other dishes on the way, much to the amusement of his kids and less so to his wife.
54	* ObfuscatingStupidity: The first team they play against, made up of octogenarians.
55	* ObiWanMoment: Neil Bucyk has one, while being dragged down a conveyor belt towards a cremation fire. {{Subverted}} in that he escapes unscathed, some time after the cut to the next scene.
56	** Neil in general seems obsessed with death, possibly a mix of his line of work (mortician) and his less-than-warm marriage.
57	* OffTheWagon: [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend Amy]] [[spoiler: After seeing [[TheHero the object of her affections]] and her sister hook up]].
58	** Given her kid's [[WiseBeyondTheirYears nonchalant and blunt reaction]] to his mom's condition, it's implied that this happens to her fairly often. But then, he could also have been familiar with her being drunk from before she started going to AA meetings.
59	* RegionalRiff: Scottish bagpipes for Canada. Appropriate, since the movie centers around a sport that originated in Scotland.
60	* RunningGag: Lennox's loan shark and his [[TapOnTheHead constant run-ins]] with the last of the Magellan Stones.
61	** Beavers.
62	** Lennox ''never'' getting his "rent a girlfriend"'s name right.
63	** ''[[VerbalTic JESUS!]]''
64	* SeriousBusiness: Curling.
65	* ShapedLikeItself: Strombeck and his wife dismiss Lennox as a possible sperm donor out of hand because he's too... ''Lennox.''
66	* TheStoner: Gordon Cutter
67	* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: Foley's posthumous message to his team.
68	* TapOnTheHead: Lennox's loan shark. [[RunningGag Several times throughout the movie]], in fact. ''With a curling stone.'' Don't worry though, he never seems to suffer from it, because he's MadeOfIron. And because it's ''[[RuleOfFunny funny]]''.
69	** Although, he is sporting one hell of a gash at the end on the movie...
70	* ThanatosGambit: Pretty much the entire plot of the film is the result of Donald Foley guilt-tripping his old curling team into reuniting after he dies.
71	* ThereWasADoor: Lennox, followed by his angry loan-shark, enters Cutter's motel room directly through the wall, much to Cutter's confusion.
72	* TrainingFromHell: Gordon Cutter has to get the RagtagBunchOfMisfits into shape somehow.
73	* TropaholicsAnonymous: Amy, a recovering alcoholic, goes to AA meetings at least once in the film. This mostly gives her a chance to monologue about her problems in a context where it makes sense to do so.
74	* {{Tsundere}}: Julie, Type A. [[BreakTheCutie It is implied that this is Chris's fault]].
75	* UnluckyChildhoodFriend: Amy [[spoiler: Until [[VictoriousChildhoodFriend the end of the film]].]]
76	* VerbalTic: ''JESUS!''
77	* VideoWill: To justify Donald Foley giving the opening narration and introducing the characters.
78	* VisualPun: {{Invoked}} by Lennox while hanging out with the rest of the team, by means of sharing his theory of why Chris Cutter left town without explanation. He poured some liquor from his flask onto a curling stone, set the stone sliding across the ice, and lit the liquor on fire, all to indicate that Chris had "burned" a stone in the previous Golden Broom (touching it after releasing it, considered cheating in the sport of Curling).
79	* VomitDiscretionShot: PlayedForLaughs, Amy pukes down Chris's back. The look on his face is ''hilarious''.
80	* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Years before, Chris Cutter accidentally "burned" a stone, touching it with his foot after releasing it, during a qualifying match to get his team into the finals for the Golden Broom. Instead of reporting it to the ref like he should have, he kept quiet. Unwilling to admit to what he had done (disgracing the team) or playing through the finals that he didn't deserve to be in, he dumped the stones in the lake and skipped town, incidentally leaving his fiancée, Julie, as well as his team, nobody knowing just what had possessed him to do that.
81	* WordSaladPhilosophy: When the team is drunkenly rambling along about Mozart and Einstein, while Amy, [[OnlySaneMan the one sober person present]], just quietly sits back listening with an amused look on her face.
82	* WorthyAdversary: Chris makes an amazing, almost impossible shot which would put his team in position to win, but his teammate accidentally brushed the stone with his foot after releasing it, meaning the entire shot is invalid... [[WhatYouAreInTheDark as long as he reports it]]. He does, and [[EagleLand Yount]] tells the referee to set the stones up the way they were before and let Chris try again.

Context Film / MenWithBrooms