Film Review: Goon

Certificate: 15 (brutal violence, non-stop language, some strong sexual content and drug use)
Directed By: Michael Dowse
Cast: Seann William Scott, Jay Baruchel, Alison Pill, Liev Schreiber, Eugene Levy, Marc-André Grondin, Kim Coates
Budget: $ n/a
Runtime: 92 minutes
Trailer: Watch

In a nation where they leave their doors unlocked and apologise to you even when they're in the right, there is one cultural practice which shatters the myth of the polite Canadian. That practice is ice hockey, a violent, brutal, uncompromising sport which provides the backdrop for Seann William Scott's latest comedy, Goon.

Genial but dimwitted Jewish bouncer Doug Glatt (Scott) is recruited for the local hockey team when he impresses the coach by head butting an opposition player. His talents for beating people up wasted in the minor leagues of America, Doug is given the opportunity to become semi-pro up in Canada. It is not long before he has to face off against his rival 'enforcer', the feared and revered Ross Rhea (Schreiber).

Writer Evan Goldberg should be a familiar name if you've seen Pineapple Express or the highly esteemed Superbad as his bromantic themes certainly translate to Goon. At its core this is a typical underdog sports movie, imbibed with plenty of comedic moments and more importantly, genuine ardor. What happens next is predictable, Doug meets girl, reignites team's fortunes, but it is executed to enjoyable effect. One mar is that the final third does experience a dip in tone by becoming more a traditional sports drama and less like a comedy, but it is not noticeable enough to throw the film completely off balance.

Nicknamed 'Doug the Thug', there's something ambrosial about the man who will otherwise break your face. He carries out his task almost apologetically, the kind of guy who will fuck you up, but then take you all the way to hospital and wait to see if you're ok. Most thankfully though Scott doesn't turn out to be Stiffler on ice, playing a character who couldn't be further removed from such obnoxious idiosyncrasies. He's a down to Earth fool who knows he's a fool, a gentile lug who's just along for the ride.

Liev Schreiber gleams as Doug's grizzled adversary while Eugene Levy's gravitas is a welcome addition. But it is Scott who is undoubtedly the star, giving an assured performance and showing off his range as an actor. When he's not all up in your grill he emanates a genuine warmth which permeates throughout the rest of the film. With a sharp script and some equally slick dialogue, Goon is a solid if not pleasing effort.

Film Review: Salt

Once again the United States is subject to annihilation, and guess who the dastardly culprits are? Why, it's those nefarious Russians naturally. Again. As far as imaginative plots go, Salt doesn't have one. Touted as the 'female Bourne', Salt doesn't display nearly half the intelligence as the masterful trilogy featuring everyone's favourite, 'Matt Damon' (Team America voice). Essentially, Salt is a series of bombastic crescendos, awkwardly put together with a story scarcely believable. Female Bourne this film is not.

Evelyn Salt (Jolie) is a CIA agent who goes on the run after a Russian defector accuses her of being a Soviet sleeper cell whose mission is to assassinate the Russian President, triggering World War III. Fleeing the CIA, Salt must stay one step ahead of her pursuers and rescue her kidnapped arachnologist of a husband. As you might imagine though, all is not as it seems.

The world created by director Phillip Noyce here is preposterous by any standard. While most fiction does indeed require you to suspend belief, which is fine, by the same token I do not like being taken for an idiot. The idea that former KGB cells embedded in the highest echelons of the US government, ready to take down the 'Great Satan' on a whim is something even L. Ron Hubbard would call 'far-fetched'.

Yet, Salt does have some redeeming features. Even though the plot is garbage, we are invited to consider the possibility that Salt is not a heroine but a villain. It is a mildly enjoyable development to consider the unknown and actually begin to hope that she might succeed. Some of the action is actually pretty cool as you watch Jolie's femme-fatale bounce off walls in crazy death defying shenanigans taking out scores of highly trained assassins. It is difficult to imagine if Anna Chapman would have lasted any longer than five-minutes attempting the same thing. However these set pieces are also the film's downfall. After the first twenty minutes the film descends into quite literally one action sequence after another as dialogue takes a back seat.

This is a film which revolves around Angelina Jolie, but the world which Noyce constructs around her is scarcely satisfying. The reason that spy films work in the first place is because they have some degree of plausibility and the twists may have some baring in reality. Salt does not have this and it suffers for it. It is littered with numerous implausibilities and characters to the point where it all becomes a tad ridiculous. Salt bounds along at a frantic pace and does enjoy some degree of never being entirely predictable, but in the end it is a bloody load of nonsense.