With the Winter Olympics currently underway at the time of this writing, it is fitting that people get a winter sports flick to sink their teeth into. In theaters and on digital on February 6, 2026, from writer & director Tom DeNucci (Almost Mercy 2015, Play Dirty 2025), production companies Hyperborea Films, LaSalle Productions, and Verdi Productions, and distributed by Brainstorm Media, is The Roaring Game.
It is about Rickey (Darin Brooks: Blue Mountain State series, The Croods: Family Tree series), a hapless ex-hockey player-turned-high school janitor whose luck takes a downward turn when his girlfriend Kelly (Fivel Stewart: Umma 2022, Atypical series) is selected for the US hockey team at the World Games. Not wanting to be left behind, he puts together a team of misfits to play a sport he thinks his custodial skills would be a good fit for: curling! But will his sweeping be enough to win back his girl, let alone the gold?
In other words, it does for curling what 1976’s The Bad News Bears did for baseball, 1993’s Cool Runnings did for bobsled racing, 2004’s Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story did for dodgeball, and 2016’s Chokeslam did for professional wrestling. Without the tongue-in-cheek irony of Dodgeball, the subversion of Chokeslam, and the heart of Cool Runnings. But it does spice up a few things.
Like having Rickey’s group of loons, including his big brother Bobby (Eddie Kaye Thomas: American Pie 1999, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle 2004), be funded by the mob via The Plow King (Mickey Rourke: Angel Heart 1987, The Wrestler 2008). Turns out he owes Rickey and Bobby’s dad (William Forsythe: Dick Tracy 1990, The Devil’s Rejects 2005) a few favors, and helping his sons’ curling team would sort them out. That and they add a few more comedy references for fans of classic Simpsons and 2006’s Talladega Nights (get it? Rickey-Bobby?). What it lacks is much focus on the titular sport itself.
While it might not have the same mass appeal as baseball, dodgeball, or wrestling, there is still tension, drama, and even laughs as teams try to get their stones to hit the mark. But fans of the game will not see much of their sport on-screen, as it rushes through the curling action until the big game in the third act. Even Chokeslam, not a classic flick but rather underrated, had pro-graps from start to finish. Instead, it focuses more on the characters and their quirks.
Like Justin Chatwin (Shameless TV series, Dragonball Evolution 2009) playing Troy, Kelly’s hockey coach, whose thick Minnesotan accent and nuclear-white teeth draw Rickey’s ire. He is suitably skeezy and scheming, yet he is not the one getting jealous and possessive of his girlfriend while lying to her, unlike Rickey in Brooks. Brooks gives the character a kind of young, Ryan-Reynolds-esque snark, though the role lacks the charm to make him particularly appealing. It makes one wish Kelly would dump them both and run off with either a third partner or just by herself.
As much as it harks back to sports flicks, it also goes for ’90s Farrelly Brothers movie vibes, particularly 1995’s Kingpin, with the gangsters turning up at a humble sport (even down to giving Vanessa Angel a small role). Yet the gags do not reach their pinnacle in either yuks or laughs. Rickey getting out of a lie by calling the principal a sex offender is not quite on par with Kingpin having Woody Harrelson pondering doing an indecent proposal with Randy Quaid. The latter manages to get a gross-out giggle, while the former does not.
Still, it is not all doom, gloom, and cliches. Thomas’ Bobby is a fun gun nut akin to Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, 2004, Hot Fuzz, 2008) in 1999’s Spaced, and the way he and Stewart’s Kelly run down Rickey adds some self-awareness to the movie. The dream sequence that gives Rickey his breakthrough is kind of funny in a cheesy way, as is Rickey’s Uncle Jerry (John Fiore: The Sopranos series, The Senator 2017) getting on the team by cheating old people at shuffleboard. Shame the movie does not do much else with him beyond that. The movie needed more time for Rourke to phone in his performance.
Overall, The Roaring Game is not the worst Sports Comedy movie out there. There are others out there that could suck the fun out of a room much faster. Even so, people can consider themselves lucky if this movie gets a giggle out of them, as it is still a rather middle-of-the-road flick with annoying characters that does very little with its premise. It is more of a whimper than a roar. As such, Cryptic Rock gives The Roaring Game 2 out of 5 stars.
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