Goon - Not a Movie for Pussies - DVD

Film: Doug Glatt (Seann William Scott) seems to be the black sheep in his family. While both his father (Eugene Levy) and brother Ira (David Paetkau) are successful medical professionals, Doug earns his humble bread as a bouncer in a bar. But luck seems to be on his side for the first time when, at a hockey match, he knocks down a player who is tangling with his best buddy Pat (Jay Baruchel). The coach of the hometown team is so taken with Doug's hard hitting and even harder skull that he immediately hires him as a goon, a player who is supposed to protect his teammates with full physicality. And although Doug is no ace on skates, he quickly makes a lot of fans with his hard-hitting style and even attracts the attention of the coach of the Halifax Highlanders. The coach wants to use Doug to protect his top player Xavier Laflame (Marc-Andre Grondin) from opposing attacks. For Doug, this is a real dream come true. When he meets the charming Eva (Alison Pill) and falls head over heels in love, things seem to be going perfectly for the Goon. But when hard-hitting player Ross Rhea (Liev Schreiber), who has already inflicted an injury on Laflame once that nearly ended his career, looks to cap his career with a win against the Halifax Highlanders, Doug is in for a challenge he's nowhere near up to.

Goon is a crude sports comedy that seems like a cross between the hockey classic Slap Shot and a dirtier version of the baseball comedy The Indians of Cleveland. The fact that the film doesn't degenerate into a pointless slapstick despite its sometimes very raunchy dialogue and some pretty brutal hockey scenes, in which the film certainly lives up to its German subtitle Kein Film für Pussys (No Film for Pussies), is due on the one hand to the amusing screenplay, which supporting actor Jay Baruchel (Duel of the Magicians ) co-wrote with Evan Goldberg (Superbad). Some very funny ideas and the frank dialogue make for some really good laughs, which thankfully aren't limited to the below-the-belt gags.

On the other hand, the likeable characters add a great deal of charm to the comedy that quickly makes you forget some of the slightly less level moments. What's particularly successful here is that Seann William Scott isn't, as you might expect, delivering another variation on his Stifler character from the American Pie movies. In fact, Doug is the exact opposite of the popular pain in the ass. Like Stifler, he's not necessarily the brightest of lights, but he's just adorable in his naivety coupled with shyness. The fact that he actually seems very polite and mild-mannered makes the scenes where the Goon runs away with him seem all the more amusing and effective.

Director Michael Dowse, who most recently delivered the somewhat tepid '80s party comedy Take Me Home Tonight, has done the hockey scenes very well. It may be that he overdoes it a little bit with the brutality, but since this is used for comedic purposes and has a certain importance for the story, perhaps not too much importance should be attached to authenticity. Doug's various team mates, most of whom are completely bonkers, are also drawn quite amusingly, with Liev Schreiber easily stealing the show from all the other supporting actors with his nasty 70s porn beard and extremely smarmy demeanour.

Although Goon isn't a particularly deep film, it does have some really nice character moments to offer, which Dowse incorporates coherently into the otherwise rather crude proceedings. This results in an extremely entertaining overall picture, which can be highly recommended to friends of the somewhat heartier humor - as long as they also attach importance to a little story. Worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The DVD's clean picture has a pleasant sharpness in most moments, only occasionally the contrasts seem a bit exaggerated and the picture slightly washed out. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix does a good job of bringing out the dialogue, with some decent sound effects that can be made out, especially during the hockey games, providing some movement in the surrounds. Good.

Extras: The DVD has over 100 minutes of bonus material to offer. Starting off is just under 45 minutes of power play clips, short videos taken during the filming. These partly very short clips are perhaps not always particularly profound, but deliver here and there nevertheless a very nice, commercial-free and above all amusing look at the shooting.

Continues with just under 9 minutes of cut scenes and five minutes of amusing outtakes and bloopers. There's also an entertaining interview with Seann William Scott and Jay Baruchel (about 29 mins), a short promo clip that takes a look behind the scenes (about 5 mins), as well as the goalie casting (about 5 mins) and fight tips from Jay Baruchel's character Pat (about 4 mins). Overall, very funny and entertaining bonus material. Good!

Conclusion: Goon is an amusing sports comedy that makes for extremely good entertainment with its mix of crude dialogue, grotesquely brutal hockey scenes and charming characters, qualifying as a worthy successor to the hockey classic Slap Shot. The DVD presents the film in good technical condition and also offers over 100 minutes of bonus material. For this there is of course a deserved: Recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp