The Best Movie Critic   +  TIME

SDFF 34 - Goon

Justin here with a review of Goon, which I saw at the Starz Denver Film Festival.

I went into Goon with a chip on my shoulder. Slap Shot is one of my all-time favorite movies. What is this pretender to the throne?!? I fully expected Goon to be 90 minutes of Hanson Brother antics and little else. To make things worse, I was in a rotten mood. Festival fatigue had set in and I didn’t like any of the 3 movies I saw earlier that day. They were all slogs to make it through. I sat down and waited for Goon to suck.

Luckily, I was wrong. Very very wrong.

Goon is phenomenal. By far, it was the biggest surprise of my festival experience. You know that feeling you got when you saw Shaun of the Dead for the first time? Here it is again, an amazingly entertaining feel-good comedy with surprising depth. You will love this movie regardless of your feelings about hockey. You need to see this. Preferably you need to see this with a rowdy group of hockey fans… at a place where alcohol is served.

OK, first off the whole Slap Shot thing. Goon is as different from Slap Shot as Mighty Ducks is. They’re about hockey and that’s pretty much it. Goon throws a couple of winks towards Slap Shot, but that’s about it. Particularly, the team’s captain is an aging vet going through marital problems that plays like a twisted and updated version of Paul Newman’s character.

Enough of that. Seann William Scott plays Doug Glatt, a bouncer at small-time sports bar. Glatt ends up getting in a fight with a local hockey player and totally kicks his ass. Shortly after that, he’s offered a spot on the team to be their goon. Glatt doesn’t know how to skate or how to play hockey very well, but he’s an excellent fighter. Soon he’s promoted to a farm team for the majors and fights his way across the league.

The story is what you’d expect from a movie like this. While there are some interesting turns, it remains fairly played and predictable, but that’s OK. The story is an excuse for all the hilarious and awesome things that happen in this movie. The writing is razor sharp and side splitting all around. Scott brings an earnestness to Doug Glatt that makes it so you can’t help but root for him. The supporting cast of relative unknowns is uniformly great as well. I was especially glad to see Alison Pill from Scott Pilgrim as Glatt’s love interest.

Director, Micahel Dowse, gets fantastic performances from everyone involved and keeps the pacing tight and exciting. I look forward to catching up with Dowse’s other movies and I can’t tell you how excited I am to see what he does next.

There’s so much about this movie that I don’t want to give away, the brutal fight scenes, Glatt’s journey of self-discovery, and too many hilarious catch phrases to recollect. Goon is officially released this March. Even though I’ve already seen it, it’s probably the movie I’m most looking forward to in 2012. That’s including The Dark Knight Rises and Avengers, and you know how big of a nerd I am. That’s how good Goon is. Highly recommended.