Review: ‘Goon’

“Goon” is the story of Doug Glatt, played by Seann William Scott, who is a bouncer at a local bar in Boston. Glatt feels that he lacks an identifier, like his best friend who has a hockey talk show and his dad and brother who are both doctors.

One night, while at a minor league hockey game, an angry player makes his way up into the stands to attack his antagonizing, obnoxious friend Ryan, played by Jay Baruchel. Glatt steps in and easily settles the dispute by knocking the player’s lights out. This impresses the home and opposing teams’ coach who invites him to try out for his pitiful team. Glatt accepts, although he has neither prior hockey-playing experience nor ice-skating experience for that matter.

By knocking out half the team’s players at practice, Glatt makes the team. From that point on, Glatt has one function: Enforcer. His role is to get revenge on opposing team players who throw cheap shots by fighting or hitting them. He is very successful with this and ends up being offered to play for a higher-ranked minor league team, the Halifax Highlanders.

Meanwhile, another and most notorious enforcer, Ross Rhea, played by Liev Schreiber, was sent down from the NHL to the same league for slapping a player across the head with his stick. Prior to that, Rhea violently checked Glatt’s new teammate and roommate Xavier Laflamme, played by Marc-Andre Grondin, which caused Laflamme to lose his extraordinary puck-handling ability due to fear of getting hurt like that again.

Laflamme becomes rebellious, mixes with the wrong crowd and loses desire for being a good teammate and his life overall. Glatt becomes a star on his new team, and a conflict arises between him and Laflamme although they start winning games. Inevitably, Doug Glatt and Ross Rhea meet in the playoffs for a showdown to see who the better “enforcer” is.

After seeing the trailer for “Goon”, I was not much interested in seeing the movie. I thought it would be a corny sports comedy with few parts that would actually make me laugh. I was wrong. I was doubled over laughing for most of the movie. It has many memorable one-liners, slap-stick humor that is actually funny, and a surprisingly good plot.

Seann William Scott’s character is not like many of his characters he plays in other movies. He portrays a shy, modest guy who is just looking for his place in the world. I thought his friend Ryan was the funniest character in the film with his brash, loud-mouthed commentary. Although the fighting is a little over the top, it is done very well. It had me feeling fairly aggressive by the end of it. It is a great movie for hockey fans, physical-violence lovers and those who enjoy a good plot overall.