If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

'Goon' is a unoriginal one-joke comedy with an generic and boring plot that has already been done dozens of times before. It reminded me of a bad ice-hockey version of the movie 'Dodgeball'. But while that movie had some hilarious characters and very funny one- liners, 'Goon' relies on the same cheap and unfunny gag for most of its attempted humour.The main character is stupid and clumsy, but in an annoying way rather than funny. After the first two or three scenes of him destroying everything in his path, it starts to get a little tiresome. That's the film's only joke, and it isn't very funny or durable. 'Goon' is an annoying and totally unfunny movie, lacking any originality or ideas to make it worth your time.

I watched this film because I like hockey and I heard it was a good story. Both points turned out to be true. However, the fight scenes are a little too gory for me: lots of blood and teeth and sound effects. Also the characters are just as crude and foul-mouthed as the stereotype. Hardly a line of dialog without an f word and a reference to penises, gays, and/or sex. If you know what you're getting into, then you may be able to see the really sweet story of Doug Glatt and his team, the Halifax Highlanders.So, Doug is not too bright, but he has firm ideas of the right thing to do. He is working as a bouncer in a bar when the film opens, hanging out with his best friend who has a sort of amateur hockey talk show. One night at a local team's game, an opposing team's player climbs into the crowd to fight with Doug's friend and Doug knocks him around. The coach of the local team invites him to join the team, to be a goon and protect the other players. Doug can't even skate, but he wants to belong. It isn't long before he gets sent up to Halifax to play in a Canadian league and that's where most of the story takes place. Doug's teammates are the usual band of misfits: the alcoholic old dog who is going through a divorce, the young earnest but not very good guy, the phenom who was injured in a NHl game and is trying to get his groove back, etc. They don't know how to be a team and they are terrible on the ice. It takes the open-hearted honesty of Doug the Thug to mold them into winners. And some fights, of course. By the way, there is also a love- interest in Eva. I'm not convinced she adds anything to the story but the scenes between Doug and Eva are mostly cute. "You make me want to stop sleeping with lots of guys" is not a great line, but it kind of works.

For those of you looking for a high-class, well-nuanced dramatic presentation, Goon is probably not for you. However, it is very funny and has a lot of heart in unexpected places, so is well worth a view for someone who likes sports movies and (extremely) vulgar comedy.The story revolves around Doug, a bouncer at an Ontario bar who one day beats up a hockey player at a minor league game who crawls into the stands to take out a fan. The performance is noticed by the home hockey coach, who invites him to a tryout. Doug can't even skate, but he is the toughest son-of-a-gun on the planet and is soon hired by the team to take out enemy goons. The movie traces Doug's remarkable and extremely tacky career as a hockey enforcer, up to a showdown with a famous bully from a rival team.This movie inevitably draws comparisons to Slap Shot, to which it is clearly indebted, but actually has a different slant than its predecessor. Slap Shot was an homage to teams like the 70s Flyers, who played a new rough and tumble style but whose players were still hockey players. Goon, by contrast, pays homage to a phenomenon of the 80s and 90s, single players hired by teams specifically to fight and do little else. Guys like Bob Probert, Chris Nilan, Derek Boogarde and others could barely play hockey, but made a very tough living being the body-guards of the skill players. Doug from Goon clearly plays that role.The movie gets a lot of comedic mileage out of the fact that these goons have no talent in the conventional sense; Doug is neither smart nor skilled, and we laugh at him because he is clear mockery of any sort of sporting ideal. Beyond that, he occupies a world that is so tacky that it is simply hilarious; the movie is at its best when it lovingly makes fun of the amazingly vulgar world of the minor-league hockey player. Doug is very sympathetic, however, because he is tough as nails and willing to take a nasty one for his teammate, and in the end it is this quality that ends up turning the tide for his team. We root for him because he is the type of person we like to be--a tough but ultimately kind-hearted lug who overcomes the odds by determination. At the same time the movie avoids the trap of taking itself seriously, and in the end gives us some good not-particularly-clean fun.

I'm not a hockey fan by any stretch of the imagination, but Goon is a really funny, heart-warming film despite the film being hockey-based. But then again, this is a Canadian movie so a hockey film from Canada is not surprising at all. But the film goes beyond the sport and into the realm of its characters. The film is mostly based off the characters and their relationships with each other. Making friendships and finding love are some common themes here. However, the entertainment level is on full gear as we get some very brutal fights and lots of blood. The film is extremely violent, which may be a turn-off for some people expecting a film like 2004's Miracle.Michael Dowse's film is about a man named Doug Glatt who heralds from an educated family and works as a bouncer at a bar, even though he seems dim-witted to a degree. But at a hockey game, he protects his best friend from a vicious hockey player by knocking him out cold which opens the eyes of the scouts. Despite disapproval from his parents, Doug gets a chance to shine as a enforcer for a minor league hockey team....and one of his rivals is a washed-up enforcer named Ross Rhea.The acting is actually pretty good. Seann William Scott is known for his role as Stifler in the American Pie series, but he does an excellent job playing the complete opposite as the nice, but really dumb Doug. Jay Baruchel is okay as Doug's friend, but maybe tone down his language a bit. Liev Schreiber does a fine job as Rhea. Eugene Levy makes a cameo as Doug's father.Overall, Goon turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It's much more than a sports film as it centers on a rags-to-rich story, which makes it all the better because of Doug's personality. There is enough blood and brawls to satisfy hockey fans or any sports fan in general. I'm not a hockey guy, but I was able to enjoy the film very much so because I pretty much saw the brawls as boxing on ice. It's a good, entertaining film. I rate this film 9/10.