Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Seann William Scott | ... | Doug Glatt | |
Jay Baruchel | ... | Pat | |
Alison Pill | ... | Eva | |
Liev Schreiber | ... | Ross Rhea | |
Eugene Levy | ... | Dr. Glatt | |
Marc-André Grondin | ... | Xavier LaFlamme | |
Kim Coates | ... | Ronnie Hortense | |
Nicholas Campbell | ... | Rollie Hortense | |
Richard Clarkin | ... | Gord Ogilvey | |
Jonathan Cherry | ... | Marco Belchior | |
Ricky Mabe | ... | John Stevenson | |
George Tchortov | ... | Evgeni | |
Karl Graboshas | ... | Oleg | |
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Larry Woo | ... | Park Kim |
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Stephen Sim | ... | Backup Goalie |
Doug Glatt of Orange, Massachusetts is floundering in life, he having no real sense of where he fits - having a "thing" as he calls it. He doesn't have the book smarts to become a doctor like his adoptive father or his gay adoptive brother Ira. And he doesn't have the passion that his best friend Pat has for his self-appointed work, hosting a hockey based cable call-in show, Hot Ice. Because his fists and skull are figuratively like steel, Doug is good at the enforcement part of his job as a bouncer despite he having a naturally friendly childlike approach to dealing with people and situations. An incident involving Doug in the stands of an Orangetown Assassins minor league hockey game leads to its coach, Rollie Hortense, offering Doug a tryout with the team as its enforcer, the tryout regardless of the fact that Rollie has no idea if Doug even knows how to play ice hockey (which he doesn't). Learning just enough hockey skills, Doug makes the team. Rollie, however, quickly believes ... Written by Huggo
I think that if you go to see this movie, you know what you're getting into. It's essentially a love letter to the violent side of hockey written by Jay Baruchel and Evan Goldberg, both of whom are known for a particular kind of comedy, and it stars Seann William Scott, who is known for playing a particular kind of character. Check out the 'People who liked this also liked...' section on the page for this movie. You'll see flicks like The Hangover, Crazy, Stupid Love, and Role Models. If those are your type of movies, chances are you'll enjoy Goon.
The premise of the movie is that a likable, polite, not-exactly-bright bouncer, Doug Glatt, is invited to join a semi-professional hockey team as an enforcer. I think what I chiefly liked about the film was that yes, there's lewd and crude humour and a somewhat predictable plot line, but you'll like the characters and at no point does the movie start to drag or fail to entertain.
I was also pleased to see that, as a Canadian hockey fan myself, I wasn't spoon-fed easy stereotype jokes. The things that were funny hadn't been recycled a hundred times in every other movie that pointedly features Canada as a setting. The characters do drag out the old 'eh' every now and again, but you feel more like it's a wink to Baruchel's home audience rather than something intended to hit you over the head with a 'SEE, we're in CANADA!'
Bottom line: This flick isn't going to win any Oscars. But if you want to see something thoroughly entertaining, it's a good bet. If you don't laugh at least once, you're - probably my grandmother.