Soccer Movies

Soccer Movie: Atletico San Pancho - 2001

A red Coca Cola soccer ball falls from the sky and is taken as sign by the old school janitor that he must revive the soccer tradition of his village. With the help of a former pro who has come home to run his father's tiny store, janitor Don Pepe assembles a school team named Atletico San Pancho. The team progresses to the Cocoa Cola Championship game, played in the Azteca stadium.

The anglicized title is "Never Too Young to Dream". It's pretty much Mighty Ducks in a small Mexican village, but without a bad boy coach. Or even any bad boys. It's an all-round very nice, harmless movie good for kids. The soccer is okay; the little boys score fancy goals (scorpion, bicycle, u-name-it). There is a bit of innocent romance. Umbro and Coke have a lot of product placement. Plus, the team's uniform is a cow pattern, which is everywhere. If your girlfriend collects cow things, surprise her and rent this movie!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0236313/
DVD on Netflix. Spanish with English subtitles.

 

Soccer Movie: Johan - 2005

Johan is a very enjoyable dramedy/romance that, in a gentle way, shows that soccer is just a game, even in the Netherlands. The youngest in a family of 11 soccer-obsessed Dutch boys and their father, Johan doesn't fit in because his obsession is music. The other 10 become pros, so Johan becomes a "professional brother", gaining favors through his association. His first love marries the 10th brother, a starter for Ajax, and Johan decides to win her back through his music.

Since it was produced at a cost of $3M Euros, the movie is polished and well-done. Johan is a look-alike for Ashton Kucher. The plot is quite clever in how it resolves the brothers' romantic dilemma. As far as soccer, there is a lot of juggling, and it could be that some of the brothers are real soccer pros. There is some Ajax footage.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430252/
The DVD from Netflix is in Dutch with English sub-titles but no ability to turn them off.

 

Soccer Movie: She's the Man - 2006

She's the Man is a clever adaptation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, a story of mistaken identity and cross-dressing, played on a high school soccer field. Amanda Bynes sparkles as Viola, a girl masquerading as her brother Sebastian in order to play on the boys team (under coach Vinnie Jones). But she falls in love with team captain Duke, who has the hots for Olivia, who aims to win the "boy" she thinks is Sebastian.

Altho this movie cost $20M to make, it garnered box office of $33M. There are several reasons for this success:
(1) Channing Tatum has 10 shirtless scenes as Duke.
(2) The screenwriter also wrote "Legally Blonde" and "Ella Enchanted".
(3) Amanda Bynes does an excellent job with her comedic talents and is quite believable as a boy.

On the soccer side, despite having 3 soccer consultants, the movie has very little of the game in it. Amanda had not played soccer at all before this movie. Still, this is one of the better soccer movies, and it is a good film for kids.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454945/
The DVD is on Netflix and has extras such as several commentary tracks.

 

Soccer Movie: Rise & Shine: The Jay DeMerit Story - 2011

If you are reading this, I assume you are a BigSoccer regular, and you already know at least a little about Jay DeMerit. Unfortunately for those who don't, the first-time filmmakers of "The Jay DeMerit Story" make the same assumption and present his history chronologically. So it takes awhile for the non-soccer viewer to understand why his story is even worth telling.

But if you know who Jay is, then the first 45 minutes are compelling. Jay, who grew up in Green Bay, makes his dream--to play in the EPL--come true through sheer will power, refusal to give up, the help of friends, and eventually, the luck of being in the right place at the right time. There are insights into how tough it is to make it in the EPL, where age 19 is washed up. Jay also points out how often the-next-big-star peters out in 1-2 years after injury or insufficient mental attitude, and ends up playing in the Sunday Pub leagues.

The excitement of Jay's leading Watford to promotion to the EPL is almost palpable. But after that, the movie is a pastiche of WC 2010 clips, and it loses all steam once they interview Bob Bradley, the soccer embodiment of deathly dull.

The real problem with this movie is that there is not enough story for a feature film; it probably should have been a 1-hour TV documentary at best. Anyhow, it is going through a limited theatrical run right now (the screening I was at tonight had only about 20 patrons). We lost the audio for the last 5-10 minutes, so I don't know if there were any pithy nuggets of wisdom at the end. If nothing else, maybe this movie--made by the help of donations via Kickstarter--will help set up Jay as an action star; certainly the camera likes him, he's reminiscent of Matt Damon and Sam Worthington, and Hollywood could use some fresh blood and a real athlete.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1815903/
http://jaydemeritstory.com

 

Soccer Movie: El penalti más largo del mundo - 2005

"The Longest Penalty Kick in the World" is a Spanish film that is so horribly boring I had to keep rewinding to watch the parts I had dozed through. The premise is that a small town team is trying to win its last home game so that it can get promoted. However, at the end of stoppage time, the referee calls an unjust penalty kick, and before the kick can be taken, the game is terminated when the angry home crowd chases the referees off the pitch. The league rules that the 2 teams must complete the penalty kick a week later. Because the starting GK was injured, Fernando the substitute GK--a scrawny inept chain-smoking alcoholic--is wined, dined, and set up with the coach's daughter, to bolster his confidence. But Fernando is such a totally disgusting character that he's difficult to watch.

The only entertaining parts of the movie are the Sunday-league level of soccer in the beginning and the end, when the PK is first given and then concluded. The corrupt refereeing is comical.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430454/
DVD on netflix. In Spanish with english subtitles.

 

Soccer Movie: Días de fútbol - 2003

Días de fútbol, or "Soccer Days", is a pretty funny Spanish buddy film about 7 men who resolve to enter and win a soccer league in order to cheer up Jorge, who has been dumped by his long-time girlfriend. All of the men have troubled love lives, and they are all terrible soccer players. They are led by Antonio, an ex-con with anger management issues, who wants to become a psychologist and tries to solve everyone's problems.

This movie has sex, nudity, constant swearing, and many references to male anatomy. Even the kids in the movie chant obscenities. As far as soccer, it's amusing to watch the various ways the teammates cheat and yet still lose their games.

This movie cost $2.6M Euros to make and apparently grossed quite a bit at the box office. A couple of years after making this movie, Fernando Tejero (Seraphin) had the starring role in the deplorable "El penalti más largo del mundo".

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377834/
DVD on Netflix. In Catalan Spanish with english subtitles.

 

Soccer Movie: Kicking & Screaming - 2005

Though Will Ferrell often plays a psychotic jerk, he is really a jock who majored in sports broadcasting at USC. Maybe that's why so many of his movies have a sports theme. So Kicking & Screaming is his soccer movie. But instead of being a player, he is the inept Soccer Dad coach saddled with the worst team in the league. With the help of Mike Ditka, he becomes obsessed with beating the league champions, who are coached by his ultra-competitive father (Robert Duvall). How can he beat them? By bringing in a couple of Italians...

This movie has a fairly good script, was produced by Judd Apatow, directed by the son of Bob Dylan, and Ferrell was paid $20M to star in it. So, it has great production values for a soccer movie. And the soccer is choreographed by Dan Metcalfe, who has advised on many soccer movies and does a good job on this one (in an inside joke, Ferrell hands out "Coach Dan" training videos to the team).

But is the movie funny and worth watching? It's kind of a toss-up. When Ferrell is the mostly normal dad in the first half, all the characters are involved and it's entertaining with a lot of laughs. But then Ferrell becomes the anti-Dad-coach, the coffee-fueled crazy who runs onto the field to push a player down. He screams at kids/parents/refs, throws chairs, taunts the other team, and tells his players to break their opponents' clavicles. At that point, as a parent, it's not so funny because frankly, it's too close to the truth. The problem is, when Ferrell does his shtick in his other movies, he's doing it around adults, and you see him as the over-grown kid. But when he acts out around little kids, then you see him as a very bad influence, and you want it all to stop. Of course, if you're a classic Will Ferrell fan, none of this will matter.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384642/

The dvd is on netflix and has interesting extras, such as how the idea for the movie came about, how the Italian players were recruited and taught to do the special soccer tricks they execute during the games, and how Metcalfe trained the very non-athletic actors in a 2-week soccer camp.

 

Soccer Movie: The Other Half - 2006

The Other Half is a long drawn-out joke. An England fan plans a honeymoon in Portugal so that he can sneak off to England's three Euro 2004 games. The complication is that his American wife doesn't even know he's a soccer fan, and her father has paid for the honeymoon.

The DVD for this low-budget movie has a "making of" extra where the first-time writer-directors whine about how hard it was to get the movie done, how the crew was only served granola bars, how they had no permit to film in Portugal, yadda yadda yadda. Since I watched that first, it gave me a clue that this wasn't going to be a very good movie. The second clue was that these guys haven't been able to get another film job since.

There is no soccer in this movie. There are various crowd scenes from outside the stadium at Euro 2004. Vinnie Jones has about 2 minutes of screen time when he shows up in the husband's dream sequences. The story includes an unexplained camera crew called "Eye on the Ball" that follows the couple around...must be an English joke?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458449/
DVD on Netflix, but don't waste your time unless you're a Danny Dyer fan.

 

Soccer Movie: Studs - 2006

Studs is an Irish soccer comedy with a good performance from Brendan Gleeson (Harry Potter's Prof MadEye Moody). Gleeson plays a mysterious manager whose seeming identity inspires a ragtag Sunday team to a Cup final. But the downer ending left me very ambivalent.

Then, I discovered that Studs was originally a stage play produced in 1986! In 2002, Paul Mercier's play was revived, and he was funded to turn it into a film. Being a Sunday player himself -- along with most of the actors -- the film is an homage to that level of play, and the soccer is quite authentic. But the story doesn't quite pull together, maybe because even after 20 years, its theatrical heritage wants the viewers to fill in the gaps with their own conclusions.

But hell, that's too deep for me. I'm a shallow American viewer. I just want to be entertained.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452866/
The DVD is on netflix. In English, but I couldn't quite understand all the dialog, and unfortunately no subtitles are available.

 

Soccer Movie: Bend It Like Beckham - 2002

I tried to save the best for last, but it looks like the end is never in sight, so here's my 50th review: Bend It Like Beckham. BILB proves that when a story is close to the heart, a writer/director can make an outstanding soccer movie and family film. At $78M, BILB is probably the top-grossing soccer movie of all time (made for ~$7M).

The story transcends soccer. There are many sub-themes that play together seamlessly and with humor: Indian family culture, sexism, women in sport, and soccer passion. Jess, a young British-Indian girl, wants to play semi-professional soccer, but her immigrant Sikh parents forbid it, because such activity will not get her married off. Her friendship with Jules (a sparkling 16YO Keira Knightley) is threatened as both players fall for coach Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and compete for scholarships to Santa Clara University.

The soccer is choreographed by Simon Clifford, who has worked on a handful of soccer movies and also runs the worldwide Brazilian Soccer Schools franchise. Over 10 weeks, he trained the actors and taught Parminder (Jess) how to BILB. The non-actor players are from QPR Ladies, Fulham, and Hamburg. But the play is very time-sliced together and does not really flow.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286499/
The DVD is on netflix and its best extra is the audio commentary by female writer/director Gurinder Chadha and writer Paul Mayeda Berges.

Some facts from the commentary:
1. The director got Beckham's approval in 1998 after his red card vs Argentina almost destroyed his career. By the time the movie came out, it coincided with his WC2002 performance and rise to megastar-dom.
2. Most of the film is shot in the Southall indian district of West London.
3. The burn scar on Parminder's leg is real and is incorporated into the film by having her tell the true story of how her trousers caught fire.
4. The film was shot in 35 days in summer 2001.
5. Shaznay Lewis, an English pop star, was added to Jess & Jules' team because she played one game for the Arsenal Ladies.
6. The writers attended the 1999 WWC and wanted to incorporate that excitement about womens soccer into their story. Shots of Tiffany Milbrett and Mia Hamm are in the film.
7. Frank Harper, who plays Keira's father, used to be a hooligan. Art imitating life, Frank has played a hooligan in 2 football films. His father played for Milwall Lions.

 

Re: Soccer Movies - Top 10 of first 50

Here's mj's list of the soccer movies most worth watching. I rated the first 50 I've reviewed on a scale of 1-10, on the basis of how well they told their story, how good was the soccer, and how well they communicated the passion for soccer. These 10 are sorted by rating, release date (newer first), and then alphabetical.

If you want to post your own top 5 or 10, then could you please trim your post to exclude quoting this message? It helps shorten the printed version of this thread. thx!

Code:

[b]
rate 	year	title				category	ethnicity/source
[/b]
10	2010	Pelada				documentary	global (USA)
10	2006	La Gran Final			cultural	global (Spain)
10	2002	Bend It like Beckham		comedy		British-Indian
9	2005	Green Street Hooligans		drama		British-American
8	2010	30 for 30: The Two Escobars	documentary	Columbia (USA)
8	2010	The Damned United		drama		British
8	2006	She's the Man			romantic comedy	USA
8	2005	Goal! The Dream Begins		drama		British-American
8	2001	Mean Machine			comedy		British
8	2001	Shaolin Soccer			comedy		Cantonese

 

Soccer Movie: Bella - 2006

I found "Bella" because of this description on Amazon: "An international soccer star ...is on his way to sign a multimillion dollar contract when something happens that brings his career to an abrupt end."

I'm posting this review so soccer movie fans know this is actually a pro-life movie, and that is its only real point. This is not about soccer at all, nor is it a romance. There are 3 seconds of little boys playing street soccer. The film is very very slow and the situations aren't plausible, even for New York. The DVD has extra features that talk about how hard it was to get the film distributed (financed by Goya Foods).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482463/

 

Soccer Movie: Rudo y Cursi - 2008

Thanks for the suggestion, Mr P Mosh. Rudo y Cursi just happened to be next in my DVD queue!

Rudo y Cursi is one of the top-grossing Mexican movies ($13M). It is a reunion of the makers and stars of the even more successful 2001 "Y Tu Mamá También". It is an artful story of hick half-brothers from banana plantations in the Cihuatlán Valley between Jalisco and Colima. An agent discovers them and signs them to opposing 1st Division teams in Mexico City, where they succumb to the trappings of success.

Many contiguous themes are woven into this dramedy of sibling rivalry, brotherhood, drug lords, gambling, vitamin supplement sales programs, and how pro soccer diminishes the players' love of the game. That's a lot of themes, but they are well integrated. Additionally, I didn't realize that single moms are so prevalent throughout Mexico (because men abandon their families or women push them out). That plays a significant part of the story.

First-time director Carlos Cuaron put very little soccer into this movie, because he did not want it to be a soccer movie; the soccer is meant to be a metaphor for life. But the soccer that is included is authentic, as both stars are weekend players.

This movie is rated R. It has swearing, drugs, sex and nudity. There are a couple of hazing scenes where the new player falls for the trick of dropped soap bar in the shower.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405393
The DVD is on netflix and has a good making-of featurette and director commentary (which I didn't listen to).

 

Soccer Movie: Looking for Eric - 2009

Don't be put off by the opening scene of Looking for Eric, where Eric the postman tries to kill himself by driving on the wrong side of a roundabout. Stay for the ride, because this movie is a comedy-drama with an outrageous feel-good ending. Eric's workmates try to help him by self-administering home group therapy and looking at themselves through the eyes of someone they really admire. While his friends pick Gandhi, Mandela and the like, Eric picks his namesake, Eric Cantona--whose pictures plaster his bedroom--because the last time Eric was happy was a decade earlier, going to a ManU game with his mates.

Shortly thereafter, Cantona appears to Eric in his bedroom.* Full of aphorisms and sage advice, Cantona helps Eric solve his many problems. Along the way, the film reveals Cantona's feelings about his own difficulties. For example, during his 9 month ban for karate-kicking a fan in the stands, he learned to play the trumpet. At one point, the story does bog down a bit when it feels like an interview, but otherwise it is extremely well done. In the end, you are pleased to have found both Eric's.

The soccer in this movie is archive footage of Cantona's goals for ManU, plus his favorite soccer moment--a cheeky chipped pass to Ryan Giggs. Steve Evets (whose stagename is a palindrome) successfully conveys a fan besotted with ManU, who can recite all of Cantona's goals. You get a good feel for the fun of a fan bus, such as the spirited singing on the way to the hooligan-like "Operation Cantona":

"What a friend we have in Jesus. He’s our savior from afar. What a friend we have in Jesus. And his name is Cantona." (apologies to any Christians reading this)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1242545/
DVD is on netflix. The extras only include a few deleted scenes which provide some extra backstory.

* In a typical trick by director Ken Loach, actor Eric did not know that Cantona was in the movie until, in the scene where he is talking to Cantona's poster, he turns around and is suddenly facing the real thing in his bedroom.

 

Soccer Movie: Barras Bravas (Azul y Blanco) - 2004

Barras Bravas (originally titled Azul y Blanco) is a very low budget Chilean spin on West Side Story--without music, soccer, or any entertainment value. Two rival gangs, who belong to different supporters groups (barras bravas), drive around looking for each other and their two star-crossed lovers so they can have knife fights and kill each other.

In the beginning and end, there are appearances by Iván Luis Zamorano Zamora, one of Chile's most famous footballers. There is no real soccer in this movie, but there are long shots of stadium fans. Most of the movie seems to take place in a car.

Horrible movie. Don't watch it. It's worse than Football Factory, if that's possible.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387847/
Not in netflix. In Spanish with english subtitles. Some sex/nudity.

 

Soccer Movie: History of Soccer - 2001

This 7-DVD set recently showed up on Netflix. After watching the first disk, I lucked out and found the whole set at my library. The History of Soccer is a terrific compilation of facts and videos. I've often felt clueless when Christopher Sullivan rhapsodized about some historical player during a game, e.g. comparing someone to a Garrincha or a Di Stefano. So now I finally understand the meaning of those names, and that they aren't a type of food or a dance step.

Guy Oliver is the wellspring of this set, which was apparently a 13-episode series for British TV and possibly FIFA. Oliver had previously compiled the Encyclopedia of Soccer. Unfortunately, the disks end at around 2000. But since then, he has produced an annual Oliver's Almanack of World Football via http://www.harpastumpublishing.com/

Each disk but the 7th has 2 episodes; each episode is ~53 minutes. Each disk has Extras that are archival film clips and additional interviews of key players and coaches. The episodes are individually produced and directed by several different people. I found the most compelling episodes were "Produced Written & Directed" by Hereward Pelling.

So if you're going to netflix just a few disks, I recommend:
Disk 1 - How soccer first started in England and Scotland and how the half-Saturday workweek helped make football the game of the working class.

Disk 3 - How Brazil established its greatness back in 1938 and why it and other South American countries struggle because of administrative ineptness.

Disk 4 - The Dark Side. If you like calamities, this episode covers stadium and airplane disasters, hooliganism, and the truth behind the Nazi-Kiev "Death Match" (which seems to have been a partial basis for the soccer movie Victory).

Disk 6 - Perhaps even more relevant today, the Game For All episode covers the history of FIFA. Once big money from sponsorship and TV rights came into the picture, it is easy to see how FIFA became corrupt. However, this is only alluded to, there are no outright accusations. Interesting in 2000 that FIFA had 15 more countries than the UN.

Strangely, it's kind of hard to find info about this DVD set; the best place to read about it may be on Amazon. The series covers every big star and club since football's inception, and the key countries on every continent. Since I only came into soccer in 1990, I feel very educated now. And the next time I listen to Christopher Sullivan or Eric Wynalda make a historical reference, I will nod sagely.

 

Soccer Movie: The Cup (Phörpa) - 1999

You don't expect much to happen in a Buddhist monastery. So it is not surprising that The Cup (Phörpa) is very slow paced. A spirited young soccer-obsessed monk defies the monastery's way of life in order to watch WC 1998. But the abbot, although he does not understand why men fight over a ball for a cup, eventually accepts that Buddhism can coexist with football, and the boys scramble for the funds to rent a satellite dish and TV before the final.

Like many of the soccer movies, the story behind the film is more interesting than the film itself. First-time moviemaker Khyentse Norbu is a revered Tibetan Lama and a reincarnated Tibetan saint. He wanted to show the human side of monks and how they live. Almost the entire cast are real monks. The disciplinarian character Geko reflects Norbu's own 20-year management of his Dzongsar Institute monastery, where the young monks would sneak outside in the middle of the night to play football, and he would pretend he did not know.

There is not much soccer in this movie, it is really about life in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery-in-exile. To that end, Norbu teaches us a little about Buddhism without teaching Buddhism. There is an interesting making of extra which explains the director's background. There is also a director's commentary, but it is disappointing because, added 10 years after the film was made, it appears that the director cannot remember much about the filmmaking.

One thing that struck me is that the 2006 La Gran Final, which I think is one of the best soccer movies, has many of the same elements as The Cup, but done much better, with an orders-of-magnitude larger budget.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0201840/
DVD is not yet on Netflix. In Tibetan (?) with english subtitles.

 

Soccer Movie: The Year My Parents Went on Vacation - 2006

In the touching Brazilian drama, "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation", the Year is WC 1970: the triumph of Pele and one of Brazil's greatest teams. But “on vacation” is an activist euphemism for going on the lam to avoid arrest and torture by the ruling military dictatorship. To protect him, a couple leaves their 11yo son on his grandfather's doorstep, in the largely Jewish Bom Retiro neighborhood of São Paulo. They tell the boy they will be back to watch the World Cup with him, not knowing the man has dropped dead. Mauro is cared for by a crusty neighbor and follows the games while he awaits the parents who may never return.

Director Cao Hamburger had produced many children's shows and portrays this story through the boy's perspective. But that is what disappoints me about the film. Every vignette is shadowed in nuances, and the boy’s emotions are largely repressed. It is not until the end of the film that he understands “on vacation” is not a good thing. The viewer is also shielded from knowledge and limited to the scope of a child. So neither do we really understand the characters nor what is really happening in Brazil. While it may be very artsy to do this, it is not terribly satisfying to watch. However, I must be in the minority, because this movie did a fairly robust $3M in box office.

There is a scene of local 8v8 soccer play in the movie, but most of the soccer experience is watching groups of fans screaming at little TVs, yelling “GOALLL!”.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0857355/
In Portuguese and Yiddish with English subtitles. The original title for this film is "O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias". The DVD has two making of extras. It is not yet on Netflix.

 

Soccer Movie: Dare to Dream - 2005

The HBO documentary "Dare to Dream: The Story of the US Womens Soccer Team" faithfully captures the build up and heartbreak that is US womens soccer. If you are a fan, you need to watch this film. If you watched it when it first came out in 2005 (like I did), you need to watch it again.

We are now 7 years removed from watching Mia, Brandi, Julie, Kristine, and Joy play. We've recovered from WWC 2011. The WPS is fighting to survive. So take a fresh look at how hard the players worked to create the phenomenon that was the 1999 Womens World Cup championship team. They were a marketing machine, traveling the country to play games, run clinics, sign autographs, and fill 80-90,000 seat stadiums. This documentary brings home the reality that the 99ers made a huge contribution to soccer in the USA, as well as the fact that women players have not benefited from that foundation work.

Written by Ms Ouisie Shapiro and put together by an award-winning documentary team.
http://www.hbo.com/sports/dare-to-dream-us-womens-soccer-team/index.html

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1146435/
IMDB uses the DVD release date of 2007, but the documentary was produced as the last of the 99ers made their 2004 farewell tour. The DVD has no extras. Available on Netflix.

 

Soccer Movie: Bossa Nova - 2000

Are you 40-50 something and need a romantic comedy for a date night? Bossa Nova is your ticket, with a touch of soccer and a still-sexy Amy Irving. She married into the First Family of Brazilian Film, who along with director-husband Bruno Barreto, put this film together to showcase both her and the beautiful side of Rio. Irving's character is a widow teaching English and trying to avoid life. One student tries to seduce her by making her a blouse. Another student is a top Brazilian player who is being bought by ManU; he asks to be trained to trash talk his future opponents. Her students and their extracurricular relationships all intertwine at the airport.

There is no soccer in the movie, but the trash talk scenes and the portrayal of the player and his contract negotiations are very comical. In interviews, Bruno Barreto warns he has idealized Rio as it was back in the 1960s, that it no longer exists in the violent Rio of 2000. The movie is also about the music, similar to that of Tom Jobim (Girl from Ipanema).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0180837/
DVD is on netflix. In Portuguese and English with English subtitles. Amy became fluent in Portuguese and conducted her interviews in the language. There is a making-of extra, plus a Bruno-Amy commentary that I abandoned after 15 minutes for lack of content. Interesting tho is the one-of-a-kind deleted scene, in which Amy and a bunch of Brazilian players do a song & dance routine with soccer balls. Wow, I don't know how they cut that scene out of the movie...

 

Soccer Movie: Just For Kicks (Just 4 Kicks) - 2002

Just For Kicks is possibly the worst kids soccer movie ever made. The problem is not the classic underdog plot. The story is nonsensical, and the acting by the Sprouse twins* is as wooden as a pair of goal posts. Tom Arnold is the absent Interpol father who takes Scottish player Rudy into protective hiding. While Tom is out of town (for almost the entire movie), Rudy coaches the boys to the state championship.

It's hard to believe that AYSO sponsored this movie, as the script makes fun of and misstates AYSO as having "10 underlying principles". The AYSO emblem is prominent, and the referees even wear AYSO badges. The soccer is typically bad, with most of the shots being GK-dives-over-the-ball-to-allow-a-goal. Coach Rudy can juggle and does some tricks (it might be a soccer double). Strangely, at the 60th minute, Cobi Jones has a brief appearance as a deliveryman, and he does some juggling (badly, I might add).

This movie is not one you'd want little kids to watch. The mom and aunt have huge boobs that mesmerize the 9-10yo boys during practice. On the winning goal, one twin heads the ball with his eyeglasses, breaking them, and while he's lying on the ground bleeding, and the GK is laughing, the coach starts yelling "Second Effort", so his brother runs to the ball to score. The refs also allow a lot of trash-talking.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308443/
This movie was made for TV, but the DVD is on netflix.

*In 2010 MNN pegged the Sprouse Bros as soon to be the richest twins in the world. In order to become a household name, they signed on with Dalstar, the Olsen Twins' company. Unfortunately, it worked...

 

Soccer Movie: Romeo and Juliet Get Married - 2005

A few years after making "Bossa Nova", Bruno Barreto directed this Brazilian movie, "O Casamento de Romeu e Julieta", which is another, even better, soccer date movie. This romantic comedy* capitalizes on the antics of Romeo, who is leader of a Corinthians fan club that includes his hysterically fanatical grandmother. Although it makes him physically ill, he pretends to be a fan of archrival Palmeiras, in order to be accepted by Juliet's father, who is their fanatical club chairman.

There are some very nice touches in this movie. Juliet's father has trained her with a soccer ball from birth, so she is a womens soccer coach. When she and Romeo compare their soccer scars on their first date, it leads to a passionate kiss. But Romeo is unable to consummate their passion when surrounded by Palmeiras logos.

Barreto included documentary footage of fans in the São Paulo Pacaembu Stadium which, along with the staged fan reactions, portrays a real sense of futbol passion. He used 600 real Palmeiras and Corinthians fans in the wedding scene, with each side displaying their tifo over the church pews. Barreto also reenacted actual gameplay from 1999, using players who look like the original stars from a birds eye view. In that year, Palmeiras went to Tokyo to play in the Toyota Cup against ManU. This footage is displayed on a small TV screen so that he did not have to reenact that game.

The acting is tremendous, the characters are all engaging, and the story is a creative endearing soccer interpretation of the normally tragic Shakespearan theme. I don't know why this movie is so unrecognized, because it certainly deserves two soccer-scarred thumbs up!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0429743/
DVD is on netflix and includes a making of featurette and directory/cast commentary. In Portuguese with English subtitles.

*based on the director & cast commentary, it sounds like this movie might be funnier than they intended.

 

Soccer Movie: Those Glory Glory Days - 1983

A sports nut since childhood, Julie Welch was the first female soccer sports writer on Fleet Street. She was asked to write a screenplay for a British television series that would capture the passions of first love. So The Glory Glory Days is about the mania that four 14yo schoolgirls have for Tottenham Hotspur during their 1961 completion of the Double.

Some of it is quite comical, such as the swearing-in ceremony when young Julia joins the little Spurs clique. She relishes a piece of gum that a player has chewed, and a piece of sod that Danny Blanchflower has stepped on. It reminded me of the ABBA turd from "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert". But the fanaticisms in this movie originate from the absurdities of grown men, and to watch young teenage girls from that era, with their teased hair and flip pageboys, enacting supporter goofiness, feels false.

There is some archival footage from that Spurs season, but mostly this is a coming of age story. Danny Blanchflower, who became a sports journalist, plays himself in the movie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086433/
DVD is on netflix. It has no extras and no subtitles, and since the movie was made for TV, it is std def format.