Goon
Magnet Releasing | Release Date: March 30, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
9
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The A.V. ClubJohn SemleyMar 28, 2012
Where George Roy Hill's "Slap Shot," the former reigning champ of the narrow hockey-film canon, descends into anticlimactic late-game zaniness, Goon fully commits to its theme of violence for violence's sake. It's "Paper Lion" by way of Sam Peckinpah. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn LevyApr 26, 2012
Goon is a hoot. Read full review
80
MovielineStephanie ZacharekMar 29, 2012
Crude, violent and deeply enjoyable. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovApr 25, 2012
Put on your best Southie accent and say it with me: This film is wicked fahwkin' retahded and I loved it. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 5, 2012
The movie is harsh, nasty and vulgar like you wouldn't believe. And often, it's hilarious. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithMar 30, 2012
The dialogue, while filthy, is wickedly funny, and sounds perfect coming out of the mouths of these beaten-down characters in their low-rent surroundings. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertMar 28, 2012
The charm of Goon is that Doug Glatt (Scott) is a genial guy from a nice family. Just because he hands out concussions doesn't mean he dislikes anybody. He's just happy to be wearing a uniform. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMar 31, 2012
The film has weight in ways that you don't quite expect. Or maybe it's just Scott's subdued, slow-burn performance, which may have intended to convey stupidity but actually helps create an overall mood of convincing despair. Read full review
70
NPRScott TobiasMar 30, 2012
Scott has made an art - or at least a career - out of playing the affable dimwit. And with Goon, a salty Canadian comedy about the rise of a minor league hockey enforcer, Scott finally has his Hamlet, a role that calls for every blank, uncomprehending look in his toolbox while accessing the cuddly puppy within. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesMar 29, 2012
Seann William Scott is the best comic Neanderthal in Hollywood (American Pie, Role Models), and he's found the perfect story in this fictionalized adaptation of a memoir by minor-league hockey brawler Doug Smith. Read full review
70
Village VoiceNick PinkertonMar 27, 2012
When considering the moral implications of such gladiatorial violence, the film comes out squarely in favor, asking what's crueler: enjoying the spectacle of blood on ice or taking away a livelihood from those who can't do anything else? Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMar 25, 2012
One of the things making Goon so enjoyable is its fairy-tale suggestion that all humanity's violent impulses can be exorcized in a Zamboni-groomed ice rink. Read full review
70
VarietyRobert KoehlerMar 25, 2012
The picture has a first-rate team of actors who visibly enjoy their roles and the sharp dialogue by Baruchel and Goldberg. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanMar 28, 2012
He can barely skate, but it hardly matters: As a goon, he's a genius. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen HoldenMar 29, 2012
Behind the film's brass knuckles are tender fingers. Why else would Goon use music from Puccini's "Turandot" to underscore critical dramatic moments? Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanMar 29, 2012
Aside from Scott, only Liev Schreiber - as an aging competitor - manages to steady the frenetic swirl. Whenever the two of them are together, Goon stops skating around in circles, and matures into the funny, surprisingly touching movie it wants to be. Read full review
60
Time OutEric HynesMar 27, 2012
Despite being as pathetically penile-obsessed as any postmillennial comedy, Goon prevails where other sports-film farces fail thanks to Scott's winning, unwinking performance; Liev Schreiber's spot-on turn as a wizened, clock-punching rink assassin; and a pucked-up love of a bloody game. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 25, 2012
Brutal, bloody and presided over by a portrait of Her Majesty the Queen, the Canadian ice hockey in this movie is a cross between Rollerball and a prison riot: harking back to the robust certainties of Paul Newman's 1977 bonecruncher "Slap Shot." Read full review
60
Total FilmRosie FletcherMar 25, 2012
Lionising the pulverising, this is more fun than it has any right to be. The hockey technicalities may alienate, yet the demented, bone-crunching scraps, war-time team mentality and Whip-It style anarchy is addictive. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTom RussoApr 12, 2012
The movie's unlikely sincerity can't completely offset its ugliness for less bloodthirsty viewers, but it helps, and it does smooth over some narrative rough edges. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen ColeMar 25, 2012
What a disappointment. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMay 25, 2012
When a film's clichés are so obvious that its cast points them out for you, you've got to wonder how hard it's really trying. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMar 29, 2012
Goon feels like a movie starring a gimmick, not a person. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineNick SchagerMar 25, 2012
A second-rate dude comedy in which an untalented knucklehead becomes a star through brute violence. Read full review
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