Monday, June 18, 2012

GOON: HOCKEY WITH BLOOD, GUTS AND HEART


Sean William Scott has had a career filled with ups and downs. It seems for every movie he's made in the past that seemed to launch him into the attention of the press he'd make another movie that would give them pause and cause them to ignore him. The sad thing is that in the good movies and the bad I've always felt that he added more than he took away from those films. COP OUT, one of my least favorite films, is an example of that. So with the release of GOON it looks like it's time for the press to hail him once again and deservedly so.

Scott plays Doug Glatt, a nobody bouncer at a local bar who likes hockey but not as much perhaps as his best friend Ryan (Jay Baruchel who co-wrote the screenplay). Ryan has his own cable program and podcast where he trash talks with the best of them, more often than not in the most lewd language possible. At a game one night after Ryan insults a player, the player hops out of the penalty box to attack Ryan calling him a fag. Not a smart thing to do since Doug's brother is gay and he takes offense to it, smashing the player and knocking him out, attracting the attention of the team manager.

Doug is approached by the manager to come play for the team. With no hockey skills and almost unable to stand on skates, Doug is insulted by the team captain. Of course this results in Doug taking out half of his own team but earning their respect at the same time. Doug becomes the team's "goon", the muscle or bad guy whose job it is to inflict as much physical damage on the other team as possible. He's good at it, enough so that he gets plenty of press and is given the chance to play for the team manager's brother in a league that's a step up.

In this league Doug has a new job. He's not just a goon but he's also there to help with the team's star player Xavier Laflamme (Marc-Andre Gondrin). Laflamme was knocked into a coma by the league's main goon Ross Rhea (Liev Schreiber) who was suspended afterwards. Now he's lost his mojo and skates more out of fear than skill when on the ice. The team's manager is hoping that with Doug at his side, Laflamme can come out of his fear and take the team to the championship.

Laflamme has taken that road to superstardom that spirals down fast. Fast women, drugs and more are his interest now and he shows no respect for the game, his team and for especially Doug. It's up to Doug to change all that. And before the final reel rolls, the inevitable match up between Doug and Rhea is bound to happen.

The character of Doug Glatt is well thought out and played by Scott. This is a man who isn't the brightest person on this planet and who knows that all too well. His family, all in the medical profession, sees his job as demeaning while Doug realizes that he doesn't have the smarts to go into their field but that he excels at this one. Early on he talks to Ryan about not having a thing in his life that sets him apart from everyone else. Being on this team is the first time he feels he has accomplished anything. Where some actors could have overdone this simplistic seeming character, Scott brings him to life in a way few would be capable of.

A side story involves Doug's romantic life when he becomes involved with a young woman named Eva (Allison Pill). A hockey groupie who has a boyfriend already, Eva finds that her attraction to Doug might be more than she bargained for. Here is another character that Doug, the loser at the beginning of the film, has an effect on.

Being centered in the world of hockey there is plenty of bloodshed seen on screen here as well as enough hardcore language to make a sailor blush. But that's the world that we're being made a part of while watching this film so know it going in. It's the same world we visited once before in the Paul Newman film SLAPSHOT.

The world of movies has given us a number of characters that were the underdogs that we found ourselves rooting for. Here we have another one. Doug Glatt, aka Doug the Thug, is a character who knows his limitations and who attempts to rise above and make something of himself.  He is the perennial nice guy placed in a world where he must hurt people, all the while telling them he's sorry. And he's someone that I think most anyone would love to consider someone they'd want to spend time with. As for now it's worth spending 92 minutes with him by watching this DVD.

Click here to order.

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