Canadian Director Michael Dowse (Fubar, It’s All Gone Pete Tong) premiered his latest Hockey-Comedy back in September at TIFF to rousing reception and now is ready to unleash a “rink of fire” to the masses.  Alliance Films has shown its firm vote of confidence in the distinctly-Canadian Film, touring it over the past week with stop-offs in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal and tonight, Toronto.

Montreal’s Jay Baruchel not only co-wrote Goon together with Evan Goldberg, but also stars in it.  He is said to have been moved to tears by a surprise visit from now-Fiancée and then-Co-Star Alison Pill. The two developed a romance on-set and thus, the Film can be said to be a Labour of Love, in more ways than one. In addition to Dowse and Baruchel, talents David Paetkau, Liev Schreiber and Seann William Scott graced the Fan and Media-filled Red Carpet also at Toronto’s Scotiabank Theatre.

Goon centers upon Doug (Scott), a Jewish-Canadian Bouncer and trained Boxer whom after years of struggling to find his niche, gets hired aboard a floundering Halifax Hockey Team as someone whose purpose solely is to help his Team win fights on-the-ice, fully utilizing those Boxing chops. Doug turns out to be a much better at his job than anticipated and this causes some friction within his Team, especially with its Captain of many vices Xavier (Marc-André Grondin), and also a competing team’s soon-to-retire star, the tough-as-nails Ross (Schreiber). Along the way, Doug falls for Eva (Pill) whom at first appears emotionally unavailable, but nonetheless he is determined to win her affections. With the support of his Team and Buddy Pat (Jay Baruchel), he enjoys a celebrated, although stormy rise to the top – even if it should come at the expense of his overachieving Parents.

Certainly not lacking controversy, Goon has gained much Media attention of late for both its shocking Posters, showing Baruchel in what might be considered a lewd act, but more so its violent on-ice beatdowns.  A Representative for the City of Toronto has denied that it ordered the removal of the offending Posters namely from bus shelters, according to a probe by The Globe & Mail.

Baruchel poked fun at the situation, performing quickly an encore of the said lewd act for the Cameras, shouting “Here you go, one more time!”.  On a more delicate note, I asked Baruchel about how this Film might be misconstrued solely as a tough, violent Film when in fact much of it actually is a Love Story.  “Yes, that’s exactly right. I was raised to believe that toughness has nothing to do with being a good person or not”, he comments.   “It’s also a reaction to a terrifying trend in movies where they’re always cynical and always come from a mean-spirited place. I just wanted to bring a happiness and heart back into Films.”.

The Actor has many fond memories of Toronto having filmed many a Movie here in recent years, including Antiviral and also Silent Hill: Revelation 3-D.  Although he couldn’t comment on specifics for the latter, he did state “It’s a great scene. I’m not going to tell you too much and spoil it – the Producers are going to kill me – but it’s really fantastic, it’s going to be a great one.”.   He adds,  “I believe this is my first time being seen in 3-D.”.