The city of Reading, PA is proudly displayed in this movie. It starts with a big-league lockout angle. Doug Glatt (Seann William Scott) was made the captain and not all of his teammates were thrilled for him. As Doug always does he fended off the competition with his fists and for the Halifax Highlanders. He’s as deadpan and heroic as ever. After a fight the radio play-by-play guy says “That’s what friends are for. Especially when they’re huge Jewish guys named, Doug Glatt.”
In an early fight, Glatt gets destroyed in a fight by Anders Cain (Wyatt Russell) and that puts him on a trail to retirement. With his wife, Eva (Alison Pill) being pregnant, Doug needs a job. He goes to work for Eva’s cousin, Bob Forbes (Jason Jones). These were some of the funniest scenes in the movie.
When Pat (Jay Baruchel) and Mary (Elisha Cuthbert) meet, there aren’t any sparks. None. You’ll see why. Pill and Cutbert have great on-screen chemistry in their scenes.
The Bruised and Battered hockey fighting “competition” was good. There’s no hockey. It’s a fight club for “retired 4th liners”. Ross Rhea (Liev Schreiber) was the reigning champ making a $400 salary, not sure if that’s Canadian or American funds. George Parros had a nice fighting cameo. Along with Georges Laraque and Colton Orr all taking part in one of the Bruised and Battered events. That was the Mount Rushmore of Goons. At one point when Orr was hitting Parros. Orr asked, “What the fuck are we doing here?” Parros then chirped back, “I don’t know. I went to f’in Princeton.”
Glatt requests that Rhea trains him and learning how to fight with his left is important to the plot. Doug was right-handed. Now he’s not. Rhea smoked on the ice during training. His lines were short and very believable.
Cain and Glatt had a lot of plot twists and heat during the movie.
Michael Del Zotto had a good cameo as well. He was arguing with the referee. Tyler Seguin appeared in it as well. Highlanders star, Xavier LaFlamme (Marc-Andre Grondin) seemed to have a lot of Seguin’s best moves.
Belchy (Jonathan Cherry) got dumped on in the form of mother jokes. The Russians were brutally funny. Stevenson (Trent Pardy) was a scene steal for the entire movie. The Highlanders coach, Ronnie Hortense (Kim Coates) was solid as always. Brandon Prust had a great line.
James Duthie (TSN) and James Bailey (T.J. Miller) make a good oddball pair on Sports Desk.
Baruchel and Jesse Chabot did a nice job. This was a fun movie. It stands on its own. I loved the street hockey references. I played a lot growing up and it was fun to hear. The Stewardess (Emma Hunter) was hilarious in the movie and on the gag reel. This movie will keep you laughing throughout and the hockey is believable. The amount of blood is over the top as expected. This is a solid sports movie with more drama than I expected, and that’s a good thing. If you don’t agree, come at me!
See it in theatres September 1st.
