Not since Keanu Reeves in Youngblood has there been a more accurate portrayal of a loony goalie. I play hockey and I'm a goalie and we are all crazy. There's a ton of swearing, plenty of nasty locker room talk and enough bloody fights to make even the fans of MMA want to take a look.īut, where Goon really knocks it out of the park is the treatment of the game of hockey itself.
This is an R-rated film from the get-go and it doesn't apologize for being one. Speaking of blood, I think the biggest reason that this film is a hit is that they didn't cut any corners at the behest of the MPAA. So Goon is a throwback to a simpler time when the biggest attraction was to see how much blood was spilled on the ice each night.Īnd if it's blood you're looking for, then Goon will satiate your desire as there are enough slow-mo blood splatter shots that would make most horror flicks envious. The art of the enforcer in hockey is a dying breed, but back in the heyday of hockey thuggery (the 1970s and 1980s), it wouldn't be uncommon for a fighter to come out of nowhere and become a fan favorite in no time.īut the sport of hockey, especially the NHL, has gone through a metamorphosis in the last 20 years and fighting is slowly being weeded out of the game. Is it ridiculous and unbelievable? Absolutely, but it's also allegedly based on a true story.Īnd that could be true. The reason that Goon works is that it really hits it out of the park on so many levels. While it only scored $4 million at the box office, it really made its mark on DVD and Bluray. Seann William Scott moved on and decided to take this film written by Jay Baruchel and Evan Goldberg that tackled similar territory to Smith's Hit Somebody.įast forward a couple of years and Hit Somebody has gone through a myriad of development detours while Goon went the indie route and came out last year to little fanfare. Seann William Scott was slotted to play the lead and then things got delayed. Then, the news broke that Kevin Smith was making a hockey movie about a fighter who aspires to score one goal in the NHL. Yes, even Senseless.įor the longest time, I never thought anything would approach the greatness of Slap Shot. There isn't a hockey movie out there that I won't watch.