Post by StevePulaski on Sept 1, 2017 19:10:36 GMT -5
Goon: Last of the Enforcers (2017)
Directed by: Jay Baruchel
Directed by: Jay Baruchel
Seann William Scott returns as Doug Glatt in the sequel to Goon.
Rating: ★★
It's not every day hockey fans get a worthy film to compliment their favorite sport, and on that note, today is just another day for those waiting for those long-starved individuals. Goon: Last of the Enforcers, the sequel to the 2011 Michael Dowse-directed comedy that made a splash on video-on-demand and streaming platforms upon initial release, is a mediocre motion picture that squanders the heart and wit of the first one, and leaves it to wallow while coughing up its blood wondering "what happened?" and "how did I end up here?"
With the film's actor Jay Baruchel (She's Out of My League) assuming directing duties, this sequel bears the "let's get the gang back together, it'll be awesome" mentality. Baruchel has never directed a film prior to this one and it shows in how the film hopscotches from tender moments of Doug Glatt (Seann William Scott) promising his wife Eva (Alison Pill) that his fighting days as his team's toughest enforcer are over to viciously brutal, bloody scenes that focus on the fist-to-cuffs violence you simply never see in hockey anymore. The brawls in Goon: Last of the Enforcers would make someone completely ignorant of hockey think that people are misguiding their attention on the NFL's treatment of CTE and concussions, or question why people watch boxing or MMA fighting when they could watch bloody fights akin to gang warfare on their TVs any given day.
Shortly after painting the pro-hockey landscape as one burdened by a lockout, we drop in on Doug "the Thug" Glatt's lower-league team, the Halifax Highlanders, and see they are dealing with a whole new batch of rookies and free agents. Much of the league's attention is on the father-and-son relationship of Hyrum Cain (Callum Keith Rennie), the owner of the Highlanders, and his son Anders Cain (Wyatt Russell), who is on the Highlanders' rival team, the Reading Wolfdogs. While Glatt still has his ability to fight and make a decent play, his age is beginning to show and finally forces him into early retirement when Cain cleans his clock during the season opener.
With Glatt out and the weight of team captain put on the shoulders of young, rising star Xavier LaFlamme (Marc-André Grondin), the Highlanders slip to a sub-.500 record, prompting Hyrum Cain to make a deal to acquire his son to replace the enforcer he just lost. Glatt sees this as a sign his days are numbered, with a kid on the way and a bad right shoulder, he decides to watch from the sidelines until he gets motivation not only from his punk pal Patrick (Baruchel) but also Ross Rhea (Liev Schreiber), the iconic, and now retired, Bob Probert-esque enforcer.
Baruchel was greatly assisted in the screenwriting department by Evan Goldberg (Superbad) on the first Goon, and the two developed a delicate and balanced dose of fighting and emotion that played well for most of the film. Replacing co-writer Goldberg for the sequel is Jesse Chabot, and both him and Baruchel give Goon: Last of the Enforcers an utterly ridiculous amount of violence and bloodshed that would make Rob Zombie wince. Even worse, they overload the script with mindlessly flung f-bombs and an assortment of vulgarities that are written to masquerade as humor.
What Baruchel and Chabot do excel at, however, is giving this sequel more memorable supporting characters. Wyatt Russell, an actor who has been popping up everywhere from Everybody Wants Some!! to the new Ingrid Goes West, impresses moreso than he has before in a role that has him snarling and clawing his way amongst his own teammates. Russell can play a charmingly sweet stoner, or a nimble starving "artist" just well, but the aforementioned screenwriting duo give him a chance to be a downright contemptible cad with a lot of antagonistic grit that makes you hope you'll see his teeth kicked in by the closing credits. Furthermore, Elisa Cuthbert makes a rare appearance in the (pleasantly) underwritten role of Glatt's sister-in-law and T.J. Miller gets an occasional laugh as an outlandish sportscaster. But these are all details that should be cherries to the sundae, but because the sundae contains day-old ice cream with subpar toppings, such added filler must be appreciated while it's available.
All of this proves that Goon was most likely a one-time success of a movie, never meant for a sequel nor further character development, especially when one considers this change of direction. Seann William Scott is still as passionate as ever in the lead role, Liev Schreiber still seems as committed as ever to his eclectic but likable "Ross The Boss" character, and Grondin even steps in to be a charismatic supporting player. But in terms of donning hockey gear for one last memorable fight, Goon: Last of the Enforcers and its cast of recognizable comedians is all dressed up with nowhere to go and seldom an interesting person to fight outside of Russell, who I'd happily see play another antagonist any day.
Starring: Seann William Scott, Wyatt Russell, Liev Schreiber, Alison Pill, Jay Baruchel, Callum Keith Rennie, and T.J. Miller. Directed by: Jay Baruchel.