Ilan D. Muskat
The violence, you expect, but it's considerably more heartfelt and hilarious than it looks like on the tin. Doug Glatt (Scott) is a tough guy without direction who, pushed by his hockey-loving pal Pat (Jay Baruchel) to apply his prodigious aptitude for pummelling, winds up in the role of enforcer, or "goon", on the minor league Halifax Highlanders hockey team. Ross Rhea (Schreiber) is a legendary bruiser nearing the end of his career. Scott and Schreiber give exceptional performances as "goons", kind of man-with-a-code on the ice, peculiar breed of Hockey player that are there as a team's quasi-legal defensive element. At a certain point, the usually sneering, mocking coach of the Highlanders stumbles up to Glatt at a boozy post-game celebration, and blurts out "you're a knight!"; that's the idea here, that these not-too-glamorous, not-too-smart guys are upholding something by punching the snot out of other hockey players. Great supporting performances by Alison Pill, Kim Coates, Marc-André Grondin. The whole background cast have a weathered, unpretentious, plucky attitude that lifts the movie somewhere special.
李忠信
By giving it five stars, I don't mean it's a movie like beautiful mind because it's a completely different kind of movie, and for its kind of movie it was very good.
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