Goon - 2011 - 3 Stars

Actors:  Seann William Scott, Jay Baruchel
Director:  Michael Dowse

It's ballsy to make a hockey comedy - it's inevitable that the film will be compared to the industry standard, Slap Shot.  Despite the reverence that film has from the hockey community, Slap Shot is not just a raunchy comedy revolving around the game. Smuggled inside all the slapstick is a 70s-type character study about a guy whose way of life is becoming outdated and the hockey wives and girlfriends that put up with 'living the dream' in the minor leagues.  I was genuinely surprised how slow the film is compared to modern comedies of the same stripe (and as compared to its august rep - one which I imagine is cemented as the film is a rite of passage among young teenage hockey players).  So when I saw Goon, I expected it to abandon the character beats of its forerunner in favor of wall-to-wall humor, but strangely it didn't.

I could easily write 1500 words on the morality or sense of hockey teams' practice of having a player who is generally terrible at the game and whose only job is to fight and throw body checks - i.e. a Goon.  The film nicely deals with this conundrum by at least presenting it as one.  There's also some solid laughs, although Jay Baruchel's character seems to be a parody of bawdy sidekicks, as he is almost unbearably filthy.  This seems strange to say, but Seann William Scott is excellent in this movie - any hockey fan should recognize in his performance the simple and taciturn nature of most players.