Goon (2011)

Directed by: Michael Dowse

Starring: Seann William Scott, Jay Baruchel, Alison Pill

Overall Rating: 89.0

"Goon" achieves something quite extraordinary for this day in age: it's a funny, realistic sports movie that is actually good.

Doug Glatt (Scott) is a bouncer who makes waves with his knockout power punch, enough so that he earns a tryout with a local hockey team as an enforcer.  As the enforcer, Glatt's role is to protect his teammates by brute force.  Through his intense fights, Glatt becomes infamous and earns his way to the farm team of an NHL team.

The beauty of "Goon" is the modest comedy that comes out.  Scott delivers his lines with a sweet charm of a dumb-witted Northeasterner.  When offered weed, he simply responds "Oh, gosh, no but thank you so much for asking.  Just beer and soup for me."  As he meets a sweet girl in a bar (Pill), the charmer comes out with the same dumb-witted mentality.  It's a constant humor that lasts throughout the entire film.

 Most times with a movie involving sports, the sports aspect of the movie gets overlooked.  In the case of "Goon", the hockey action actually comes across as realistic.  Not so much that if you didn't know anything about hockey that you wouldn't be able to follow along, but hockey fans will be able to notice a number of small details that enhance the realism.

Considering the small sample size, it may not seem like much to say "Goon" is the best hockey movie since "Slapshot", but it is.  Not only that, but as a standalone movie, it's got plenty of memorable quotes to be considered a great comedy.

Individual Ratings
Enjoyment Factor: 9
Dialogue: 9
Acting: 7
Direction: 7
Audio/Visual:  7