I Can't Believe That Was Good: Goon

It's not that I'm surprised Goon was funny. Coming from the writing team of Jay Baruchel and Evan Goldberg (log-time stalwarts of the Judd Apatow repertory company), the laughs were a given. What I wasn't expecting was the heart. In other words, I'm not surprised it was good in the sense that it'd be fun to watch with a bunch of like-minded, desensitized friends. But I can't believe it was good in the sense that I'd recommend it to more thoughtful people.

That's not to say that Goon isn't profane. It is, and gloriously so. Baruchel's character's dialogue would be 65% bleeped if this film ever made it to network television (which it won't). Seann William Scott stars as a pleasantly dimwitted Canadian bouncer who, while attending a local game, beats up a minor league hockey player who climbs into the stands. A coach is impressed, and offers him a contract. Scott finds himself in a whole new world, when he never understood his first one all that well. What he knows is how to be loyal, and he gives a winning performance. Liev Schreiber also plays well as a grizzled, broken-down version of the player Scott has set out to be.

Hockey films are ripe soil for drama, being ordinarily set in more blue-collar worlds than other sports films. Minor league hockey is perhaps most ripe of all. There are no million dollar contracts and no groupies (well, there's one, played by Alison Pill, who's dealing with her own issues), just tattered jerseys, rusting buses, and frozen sidewalks. Everyone's scraping to get by, and this allows humor and gravitas to exist in equal parts.

Goon will embarrass you if you try to show it to your mom, but only because of the naughty language. It's a film where the big game victory only ensures the hero of a playoff spot, a much more true-to-life reward than the usual lovable-losers-become-champions plotline. The goals might be modest, but they're carried off with a lot of feeling.

I Can't Believe That Was Good: Drop Dead Gorgeous

I've written about Drop Dead Gorgeous before, but I've never mentioned the level of surprise by which this movie took me.  I remember thinking that the trailer was one of those "thank goodness they made a trailer to warn me away from this" jobs, but looking at it now, knowing what I know, the trailer isn't all that bad. It may have been the mere presence of Kristie Alley (whose tiny turn in Deconstructing Harry was only notable thing in her filmography since Cheers)

And Drop Dead Gorgeous?  It's drop-dead hilarious. Starring a veritable murderer's row of up-and-coming movie stars (Kristen Dunst, Denise Richards, Brittany Murphy, and Amy Adams) alongside longtime comedy heavy hitters (Alley, Ellen Barkin, and Allison Janney), Drop Dead Gorgeous tells the tale of a small -town beauty pageant that turns into a bloodbath. It's a mockumentary from a time before mockumentaries were hip, in the grand tradition of the King of Mockumentaries, Christopher Guest.

The mockumentary format allows a simple story to be told even simpler, with Modern Family-style jokes told directly to camera. In this case, though, there's an actual reason for a documentary crew to be there, and they don't seem to show up when needed and disappear when inconvenient, as they do in modern mockumentary comedies.

Janney takes home the prize for best performance as Kirsten Dunst's caustic aunt, but both Alley and Richards do unexpectedly great work as co-antagonists.  As over-the-top as the performances and story are, this is a tale grounded in real pathos, and anyone who's ever thought of killing that snotty classmate (or co-worker) that seems to get everything they want will understand exactly what's going on with these girls.

A laugh-out-loud (but also very apt) story of teen angst, drama, and competition, Drop Dead Gorgeous should be the next comedy in your queue, if only for the jaw-dropping scene during which Denise Richards shows off her talent.

I Can't Believe That Was Good: Real Steel

A new feature, "I Can't Believe That Was Good," will look at art (film, music, books) that is far better than expected.

Real Steel is an inspiring sports movie about boxing robots. Have you clicked away to some other website yet? Derisively called "Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots: The Motion Picture" when it was announced, the Hugh Jackman-starring Steel is the story of a man, his son, and his, er...robot. A formulaic film if there ever was one, Jackman is Real Steel's centerpiece, a washed-up boxer who takes to barnstorming with mechanized fighters when they replace the flesh-and-blood version in the ring. There's the ubiquitous mounting debts, estranged son (played very well, actually, by Dakota Goyo) and the tenuous love interest (Evangeline Lilly). Oh yeah, and the robot.

Real Steel is sort of Rudy, if told from the perspective of Rudy's strength and conditioning coach. Despite the ridiculous premise, stock characters (the evil robot is owned by an Ivan Drago-inspired femme fatale and programmed by a smirking smarter-than-thou Rising Sun board member) and the easily predictable scruffy-underdog-goes-up-against-slick-Goliath story beats, it's easy to find oneself cheering and grinning (at least on the inside) as the heroic 'bot (led by his heroic handlers) amazes crowds in a Gladitorial "are you not entertained?" fashion. Oh yes, we are entertained.