Goon

Sports movies are always something of a crapshoot. Sometimes it’s all hackneyed and cliched and not especially compelling; other times the effort captures the inherent drama of the game perfectly; and the rest of the efforts fall somewhere in between. This film sits closer to the good end of the spectrum than most such movies. The two great strengths here are Seann William Scott’s low-key, almost childlike performance as the titular brawler, and a script—written by Canadians Jay Baruchel and Evan Goldberg—that nails it in terms of hockey culture both on the ice and among the game’s devotees. There’s a lot of fun throughout, including big (if rather profane) laughs, excellent hockey action, and even a touch of cute and sweet in the relationship between Scott’s unlikely hero and Alison Pill as a reluctant and less-than-ideal love interest. Yes, this film does include that most prevalent of sports flick clichés, exposition through broadcaster narration, but that’s a minor sin in relation to a whole lot of good deeds. To mix appropriate metaphors, he shoots and lands his punches. Light the lamp. 

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Oh, so that's why they didn't do more of these "origins" movies. That and the fact that, I suppose, nobody really cares about any mutant other than Wolverine. It might have helped if the filmmakers here cared as much about the character as the fans do; there seem to be enough inconsistencies and outright mistakes--even to a relative non-fan like me--that you wonder if anyone involved was really...you know, involved. Plus the movie plays around with some of the canon in ways that, thankfully, were superseded by a more recent, much better version of this concept. (You know the one.) It's not a total disaster, since you do get to spend some time with Jackman in his now signature role, and that's generally good for some entertaining mayhem. But not enough to make more films like this a good idea.

The Hurricane

Excellent biopic based on Rubin Carter's memoirs. According to the reviews, the filmmakers fudged the details a bit, but Carter's story remains powerful, and Denzel Washington brings the former champ vividly to life.