Movie Review: Goal! The Dream Begins

May 5th, 2006 | by: WC Bob |

In the history of cinema, there have been a fair number of movies made about the Beautiful Game. From Escape to Victory to Bend it Like Beckham to Ladybugs, I think I have seen them all. With the exception of Ladybugs – the pure definition of “unwatchable” – I have watched most football movies numerous times. They help pass the time during the offseason so I am always willing to give them a look even when I know ahead of time they’ll be bad.

Depending where you are on this floating sphere that we call earth, you have either had the opportunity to view Goal! The Dream Begins or you will have the chance in the very near future. Undoubtedly, you will hear quite a bit about it during the World Cup. The movie is the first in a trilogy that will certainly be hyped.

I had my first chance to see the movie last night. I was prepared for the worst, but it turned out to be a decent enough film. The storyline is rather simple. A Mexican-American living in Los Angeles is discovered by an English scout while playing for an amateur league. The scout helps the kid get a tryout with Newcastle United and since it is a trilogy you can probably predict whether the kid makes it or not.

If this movie came out when I was a 12-year-old kid I would have loved it and I probably would be cursed to be a Newcastle United fan for life.

As an adult, I found it to be entertaining in a sugary, Hollywood type way where you know what is going to happen but you still continue to watch because it is kind of fun and because it has football scenes.

The second part of the trilogy will be released in Europe in the fall. I took a look at the trailer below and must say that it doesn’t excite me too much. I think I read somewhere that the scenes for the final installment are being shot this summer at the World Cup so if you aren’t careful you might end up in one of the crowd shots.

The film I really am eager to see is Mystic Ball, which hopefully will be released to a wider audience soon. I also would strongly recommend watching the BBC documentary The Game of their Lives about the 1966 North Korea World Cup team. There also is an excellent Frontline documentary online about the Serbia-Bosnia match last year. It is both fascinating and depressing.

If you have any football movies to recommend, I’d love to hear about them. They’re always a good way to fill the time when their aren’t any actual games being played.

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soze

It is soooo cool how good computer generated graphics are these days to integrate him into the squad of Real Madrid so seamlessly.
http://ecuador.worldcupblog.org/ Trent

But not even modern technology could put Michael Owen on the pitch for Real Madrid. Oh, snap!
soze

lol..nice.
http://www.bensefels.de Bense

I’ve seen it. It blows. How come Hooligan movies are always better than player movies?
http://www.worldcupblog.com Bob

Have you seen Green Street Hooligans? Now, that is a movie that truly sucked.
http://store.worldcupblog.org/kits/japan/ wendall

Is it cgi or is it real? This is a FIFA sanctioned/endorsed film, right? Could they have gotten access to the club and players so that some of these scenes are real? Not the actual football ones, naturally.
http://portugal.worldcupblog.org Luis Paulo

I watched in the teather and I didn’t think it was any good. The problem is not the story but the game. They are so unrealistic. The actor is so horrible that I knew he suck just by the way he was running for the ball. It was like me kicking with my bad foot.

Unacceptable parts:

- He trains kicking penaltys on a empty goal. What kind of training is that.

- He always dribble puting one feet on the ball, steping on it and twisting while he is over the ball. I’ve seen this happening 3 times in my entire life but he finds a way to do it well 3 times in the same play.

- Football must be really boring for all americans once they always shoot an unrealistic play that would never happen in a real game.

- The actor was so bad that I knew he couldn’t play just looking the way he run. He was cleary going to miss the steps when he got close to the ball.

It was not a script problem. The writers did a fine job. It was a directing problem.
http://www.worldcupblog.com Bob

Good points as always Luis Paulo. It is find to hard someone who can act and play football. Even Beckham can’t do both, look at his football skills :-)

I think this movie is geared towards a broader audience and while it is unrealistic on many fronts, it is a good thing for a footy movie to be a part of popular culture, especially in the US where the game needs as much exposure as possible. I don’t think people will expect to see similiar moves in real life, but when you watch guys like Ronaldinho you see moves they couldn’t even dream of for the movies.
Queso

He has sex in the second one? That doesnt seem very kid friendly(as far as the US is concerned).