I give this one a good. I have to say I was skeptical going in. I was not expecting much from this movie that I had never heard of until last week when I saw it in theatres. Apparently it is the first movie in a trilogy about an illegal immigrant seen playing soccer in a local league that seemed to amount to a pickup game in LA and given a chance to tryout for Newcastle United. I think it is put out by Disney and I was expecting major league schmaltz and hokum. What I found, however, was a pretty decent soccer movie. I really liked the performance of Kuno Becker. He plays the lead. I also thought Stephen Dillane was very good as the scout. In a slow year, both of these might be outside shots at a Beeb. There plenty of thrilling moments and exultations. Obviously, it was a bit schmaltzy. I don't think the ending is ever really in doubt, no mindblowing plot twists, but I enjoyed the ride. I read in one review that the movie did not go far enough into why one should be passionate about soccer. As one not confronted with that question, I heard the right rhythyms in all the right places. Maybe for a person who is not a fan of soccer these rhythyms might be a bit off kilter, but for me, I dug it.
By the way, if anyone from this picture reads this blog, I would have preferred it if there had not been such obvious redubbing of lines to eliminate less than friendly words. That was a bit lame.
3 comments:
I think I must have read the same review you did about this film not going far enough into why one should be passionate about soccer. Or wasn't that what they said on Ebert and Roeper? Did you see it?
I read that the guy who was originally tabbed to direct, Michael Winterbottom--a much edgier director--quit because FIFA insisted on having control over the screenplay if FIFA uniforms were going to be used. So maybe FIFA, not Disney, is to blame here (or the unhappy marriage of the two).
Well, I liked all of the FIFA aspects, the only issue I had was the bad dubbing out of bullshit and the occasional other bad word.
All in all though, I thought the screenplay was good.
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