Goon: Last of the Enforcers (2017)

So if you don't know, there was a 2012 movie called "Goon" which was made on a shoestring budget and starred Sean William Scott, written by the guy who voices Hiccup in those "How to Train Your Dragon" movies.

It had a bit of success, even getting nominated at the Canadian Screen Awards (yes, that's a thing apparently) and so on this weekend, probably the slowest weekend in the history of film, the best new release we got is a movie with Stifler.

He's this minor league hockey player named Doug Glatt and what separates him from a lot of sports movies is that Glatt isn't really there because he's especially skilled. He's just really good at putting a hurt on opposing players.

But here a broken arm and approaching fatherhood forces him to have to reassess everything and whether or not he can keep playing or not.

There's nothing terribly special here but I do really like the character that Scott has created, who feels like an Adam Sandler creation back when you can still say Sandler gave a damn.

Doug is the nicest, most simple-minded roughneck in the game and Scott proves that he has maybe been either underrated or typecast with the whole Stifler thing. There is more he can give us and this role has proved it.

I also liked his relationship with an old rival now turned mentor played by Liev Schreiber.

Doug's teammates are all a mix of Canadian and Russian cartoons but they're still enjoyable "dick joke" loving sidekicks, but it's TJ Miller and Jason Jones who get the material that's going to make people howl with the most laughter.

Of course this wouldn't be a "Goon" movie without one man beating another man to a bloody pulp and you'll get that here, especially in a grand gladiatorial final showdown between Scott and the lead antagonist played by Wyatt Russell.

This isn't as good as the first. The story is all over the place, with characters retiring and coming back, health concerns being discussed and then discarded. Seems like Jay Baruchel wanted to address some real issues here but he never frames them right.

It's also just not as funny. If you've seen the first movie you know what to expect and that's basically what you get here.

What saves it from being a total waste of time though is that Doug and company are, despite the heavier themes which way the movie down, still fun to watch.

So I go 6 out of 10 guys. If you liked this, check out Craig James Review on Youtube for more.

Fmovies: Honestly, I thought the first 10-15 minutes would resolve back to the gritty, funny "real life" of the original, but it never did. It was boring and overplayed. I love hockey movies, even if they're bad, which I why I bought this one before seeing it, but I wouldn't have if I saw it first. It nearly ranks right up there with the Slapshot sequels.

The first one was kind of original and authentic, and it had good music, but the second one had none of that. But at least people skated better.

It's worth a watch if you're out of good movies to see. The fact that it's only gotten 22 reviews at this point kind of speaks volumes. If you're not into hockey, it really wasn't worth the time to see, or even more so to review.

For me, I guess it was, more or less, worth it to see the Hawn/Russell kid. I always wondered what he'd be like. The lavishness of his silver spoon upbringing was somewhat legendary in the hockey community, so I wondered if it had ruined him or if he rose above it (given that hockey often puts people in their place for their own good). I still don't know. At least his skating looked normal.

The featured review for this movie on IMDb says a lot of negative things but doesn't really give any examples or go into detail on why it's supposedly not a good film, other than using "low-budget" as a slur and an indicator of quality, because all films with small budgets suck and all movies with big budgets are great right? Well I'm gonna go ahead and counterbalance that with a 9/10 having just read that it existed within the last 5 minutes. I absolutely loved the original from 2011 and thought it was genius. I'm a sucker for stories about deeply flawed characters with big hearts and good intentions. And just now I find out there's a sequel. It is currently 4 AM and I'm staying up to watch it having gotten a digital copy online. And then I'll probably go around telling people about it and forcing people to watch it like I did with the first one. And even if I'm disappointed with it at least they tried to keep a really great story going.

Goon: Last of the Enforcers fmovies. "That was a ******* ****show, eh"

And with that line, Liev Schreiber summed up this sequel best.

'Goon' not only made me fall in love with hockey, but it was virtually an introduction to Canadian culture for me - as I moved from Australia to Canada mere months after watching it years ago. So safe to say, I had high hopes for 'Goon: Last of the Enforcers', and remained open-minded despite all the bad reviews.

I'm being generous with my 6/10 rating. It was pretty clear from early-on, that this sequel lacked all the charm and direction of its predecessor. Many jokes fell flat, and some scenes were just filled with far too much cringe. If it wasn't for my love of the characters from the first film, there's no way I would have persisted with seeing this one through.

Baruchel's directing didn't do the film any favours. At times it felt like he'd just got really stoned while watching Rocky II and thought it would be a fun idea to put it on ice. Despite all its downfalls, I still enjoyed a couple of laughs towards the end and Schreiber's performance was a highlight.

I never really felt fully into it though, and I'm left a little disappointed at what could have been. I feel like I've been hit over the head and have no brain cells left after watching. But maybe that was the point of this altogether.

With few exceptions sequels tend to not be as good as the originals. That is the case here, sadly.

However, this movie surprised me with how fun it is. I am a fan of the 1st Goon, which charmed me with its heart and crazy gore-filled fights. This movie continues in that tradition, with a little less success than the 1st movie had. Sure there were a few annoying parts, like TJ Miller's cameo as a sports desk host, but the overall chemistry of the cast remains, as does the brutal violence. I wasn't expecting much and I found this movie to be quite enjoyable.

Goon was a cult-classic, and while Goon 2 brought back the majority of the cast, making it sentimental, most of them looked older, and the writing was awful.

Other than a decent villain (Cain) and a strong performance by Schrieber (Ross the Boss Rhea) there was no real story to enjoy, regurgitated jokes and lines from the original lacked any flavor, the lock-out (?), what the hell did that even have to do with anything?

There was no growth from the ending of Goon for anyone, especially LaFlamme, which makes me sad. My imagination had him soaring to the Hall of Fame after Doug resurrected his career, but no. The jokes were way stupider, and overall this film is horrible.

I hate it when this stuff happens. I'll always remember the original as one of the best surprise films I've ever seen.