"That's because it's a jukebox, Jerry."
Sneaked out in the post-festive lull, Goon almost works, but it has a bit of an identity crisis which means that is not wholly successful as a sports movie or a comedy or a drama, but it has elements of all three which are very entertaining. At the centre of the film is an immensely engaging and heartfelt performance from Seann William Scott as Doug Glatt, the dumb-as-a-doornail bouncer who finds a career as a 'goon', essentially a hired thug on the Canadian ice hockey circuit, and there are many other effectively reliable performers in support, including Jay Baruchel (who co-wrote and produced), Eugene Levy and Liev Screiber. It has been marketed as an American Pie-style comedy, and the film' early attempts at low-brow humour and gratuitous comedy-violence jar significantly with the terrific dramatic storylines being played out, and the film improves considerably as it progresses towards its (literally) bone-crunching final showdown. If Goon had the courage to play it straight from the outset, it would have been an unusual and sincere character tale - as it is, the film does entertain but flows uncertainly.
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