Goon falls just short of a hat trick

Rating: 6/10 (19 July 2013)

My knowledge of hockey begins and ends with the old NES game Blades of Glory, so I watched this one strictly based on a strong recommendation from a friend and good word of mouth. After an all too brief and very contrived set-up, 'Goon' manages to settle in to a pretty deft balance of humor (from a strong supporting cast of mostly unknown and lesser known actors), heart (courtesy of Seann William Scott) and brutality (also courtesy of Seann William Scott). It has most of your standard sports movie clichés, but it's not as slick and manipulative as most of those films. It aspires to be more than what it is, and it achieves that to a degree, but it doesn't quite gel into something special.