Director: Michael Dowse
Writers: Jay Baruchel, Evan Goldberg
Starring: Sean William Scott, Jay Baruchel, Alison Pill
Release Date: TBA
Length: 1 hour 30 minutes
One of the most talked about films at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival was the Canadian comedy Goon, co-written by and co-starring the internationally hilarious Jay Baruchel. The film tells the story of an idiotic but lovable bouncer named Doug Glatt (Sean William Scott), who is the black sheep of his American Jewish family. Doug is forced to beat guys up every night outside of the bar he works at, always saying “I’m sorry, man” before each punch. However, he really dreams of one day entering the sport of hockey, though he has had no experience or training. The couch of the local semi-pro hockey team doesn’t think Doug has any talent in the sport and can barely skate, but notices that he can easily beat the hell out of anything put in front of him. Soon, Doug becomes successful enough in his own town to be recruited by the Halifax Highlanders and leaves his family and best friend Ryan (Baruchel) behind in the U.S. for Nova Scotia. When he gets there, he falls in love with a local girl (Alison Pill), and his status as an undefeatable hockey enforcer rises until it reaches the ears of near-retiring Goon legend Ross Rhea (Liev Schreiber). As the team continues to win each game, the torment Doug goes through becomes worse and worse. His powerful tolerance may or may not be able to go through the continuous pain he faces long enough to lead his team of misfits to semi-pro victory. Canadian director Michael Dowse who has created a small cult following with films Fubar and Fubar II, lends his gory radical directory skills perfectly to the film called Goon. His talents for the bloody, almost entertainingly sickening effects in the film oddly create a beautiful contrast with the inspiring underdog story and the sweetheart of the lead character, Doug. If you aren’t exactly a Tarantino fan, don’t turn away so quickly. Yes, there are purposely slow motion shots of teeth being knocked out, but Goon is not just a heartless two-hour reel of guts and blood. The film carries a surprisingly huge amount of heart that comes from the connection you make with the ostracized main character and how far he will go for his sport and teammates that he loves. Michael Dowse also has fantastic camerawork that makes you feel closer to the game than most hockey films. The extremely close and fast cinematography makes you feel like you are in the centre of the rink as close as you can get. This wholly affects your movie experience because the actual hockey playing is ten times more exciting while the gore is ten times more disgusting. This is all in addition to just being a purely hilarious movie, from the amazing script written by Baruchel and producer Evan Goldberg, whose known for writing and producing films like Superbad, Pineapple Express, etc….Every scene will have at least a few lines to bowl you over, mostly coming from the idiotic Doug or the crude Ryan. This is a movie made for laughs and groans and the festival audience was almost a second soundtrack for the film because of that. The cast that brings out all those laughs is top-notch. Sean William Scott is hilariously adorable as Doug and makes this character as sweet as he needs to be for the audience to let a guy whose job it is to beat people up, carry their film for them. His charming stupidity is the only way we can really like the character that’s leading a comedy. Jay Baruchel for the first time is not playing the geeky shy nice guy but instead the vulgar, foul-mouthed best friend, a character let’s remember, he wrote for himself. If he is playing himself, he is absolutely amazing to listen to for as long as he can keep talking on screen. Live Schreiber is amusingly tough and frightening as Goon Legend Ross Rhea. Alison Pill is also very funny and charismatic as Doug’s girlfriend while Kim Coates is simply hysterical as the Highlanders blunt constantly unimpressed coach who calls it as it is. Without being a die-hard hockey fan, I can tell that Goon was a hockey movie done right, especially with hockey fanatic Jay Baruchel rearing it. There is a perfect blend of thrilling hockey and comedy gold to make the movie experience a hell of a lot of fun. A few guts and brains are worth it for this enormously heartfelt and entertaining film.
Writers: Jay Baruchel, Evan Goldberg
Starring: Sean William Scott, Jay Baruchel, Alison Pill
Release Date: TBA
Length: 1 hour 30 minutes
One of the most talked about films at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival was the Canadian comedy Goon, co-written by and co-starring the internationally hilarious Jay Baruchel. The film tells the story of an idiotic but lovable bouncer named Doug Glatt (Sean William Scott), who is the black sheep of his American Jewish family. Doug is forced to beat guys up every night outside of the bar he works at, always saying “I’m sorry, man” before each punch. However, he really dreams of one day entering the sport of hockey, though he has had no experience or training. The couch of the local semi-pro hockey team doesn’t think Doug has any talent in the sport and can barely skate, but notices that he can easily beat the hell out of anything put in front of him. Soon, Doug becomes successful enough in his own town to be recruited by the Halifax Highlanders and leaves his family and best friend Ryan (Baruchel) behind in the U.S. for Nova Scotia. When he gets there, he falls in love with a local girl (Alison Pill), and his status as an undefeatable hockey enforcer rises until it reaches the ears of near-retiring Goon legend Ross Rhea (Liev Schreiber). As the team continues to win each game, the torment Doug goes through becomes worse and worse. His powerful tolerance may or may not be able to go through the continuous pain he faces long enough to lead his team of misfits to semi-pro victory. Canadian director Michael Dowse who has created a small cult following with films Fubar and Fubar II, lends his gory radical directory skills perfectly to the film called Goon. His talents for the bloody, almost entertainingly sickening effects in the film oddly create a beautiful contrast with the inspiring underdog story and the sweetheart of the lead character, Doug. If you aren’t exactly a Tarantino fan, don’t turn away so quickly. Yes, there are purposely slow motion shots of teeth being knocked out, but Goon is not just a heartless two-hour reel of guts and blood. The film carries a surprisingly huge amount of heart that comes from the connection you make with the ostracized main character and how far he will go for his sport and teammates that he loves. Michael Dowse also has fantastic camerawork that makes you feel closer to the game than most hockey films. The extremely close and fast cinematography makes you feel like you are in the centre of the rink as close as you can get. This wholly affects your movie experience because the actual hockey playing is ten times more exciting while the gore is ten times more disgusting. This is all in addition to just being a purely hilarious movie, from the amazing script written by Baruchel and producer Evan Goldberg, whose known for writing and producing films like Superbad, Pineapple Express, etc….Every scene will have at least a few lines to bowl you over, mostly coming from the idiotic Doug or the crude Ryan. This is a movie made for laughs and groans and the festival audience was almost a second soundtrack for the film because of that. The cast that brings out all those laughs is top-notch. Sean William Scott is hilariously adorable as Doug and makes this character as sweet as he needs to be for the audience to let a guy whose job it is to beat people up, carry their film for them. His charming stupidity is the only way we can really like the character that’s leading a comedy. Jay Baruchel for the first time is not playing the geeky shy nice guy but instead the vulgar, foul-mouthed best friend, a character let’s remember, he wrote for himself. If he is playing himself, he is absolutely amazing to listen to for as long as he can keep talking on screen. Live Schreiber is amusingly tough and frightening as Goon Legend Ross Rhea. Alison Pill is also very funny and charismatic as Doug’s girlfriend while Kim Coates is simply hysterical as the Highlanders blunt constantly unimpressed coach who calls it as it is. Without being a die-hard hockey fan, I can tell that Goon was a hockey movie done right, especially with hockey fanatic Jay Baruchel rearing it. There is a perfect blend of thrilling hockey and comedy gold to make the movie experience a hell of a lot of fun. A few guts and brains are worth it for this enormously heartfelt and entertaining film.
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