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Goal!
Like millions of kids around the world, Santiago harbors the dream of being a professional footballer... However, living in the Barrios section of Los Angeles, he thinks it is only that--a dream. Until one day an extraordinary turn of events has him trying out for Premiership club Newcastle United.
Release : | 2006 |
Rating : | 6.7 |
Studio : | Epsilon Motion Pictures, Toshiba Entertainment, Touchstone Pictures, |
Crew : | Art Department Assistant, Art Direction, |
Cast : | Kuno Becker Alessandro Nivola Anna Friel Stephen Dillane Gary Lewis |
Genre : | Drama |
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Reviews
Fresh and Exciting
Best movie ever!
Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
The film was amazing and emotionally it was speaking about how you reach your goal. I liked it because the actors were good and the story was moving along. Also it was an example of a story that could happen to anybody. That made it amazing. However I have seen a lot of movies and for most if them I can predict the ending, so its boring sometimes. The movie works because it is, above all, sincere. It's not sports by the numbers. The starring performance by Kuno Becker is convincing and dimensional and we begin to care for him. He plays Santiago Munez, a busboy in a Los Angeles Chinese restaurant, who plays in an after-work soccer league so deprived that he wears cardboard shin protectors. Then he's spotted by a former soccer pro (Stephen Dillane), who tells him he has potential, and arranges for him to get a tryout with Newcastle United.
It is believed that replicating the action and thrill of any sport on the big screen is a very difficult task. Over the years, many movies have tried to do just that. But, they always had quite a few shortcomings. 'A Perfect Game', 'Goon' and 'Hoosiers' are very good examples of this phenomenon. So, it was really refreshing to see a sports movie that actually delivers what people expect from it.GOAL! THE DREAM BEGINS is a sports drama about an underprivileged young man chasing his dream. Santiago is born with a love of football (Soccer, for all my North American readers). As a Mexican immigrant living in Los Angeles, Santiago was destined to follow his father's path to work at menial jobs to earn money to support his family. All this changes, when a scout gives him chance to showcase his footballing talents in England, against his father's wish. Santiago gets to England and goes through a series of ups and downs to achieve his dream of playing professional football.GOAL! is a delightful and morally uplifting movie. For a football fan this movie is a must watch. There are a couple of very famous football players who make cameo appearances in the movie. Even though this movie is a little slow at times, the positive elements by far outnumber the negative ones.To sum it up, GOAL! is very engaging. Viewers can easily identify with the plight of all the characters.
A classic tale of rags to riches, this film is one of the most uplifting and inspirational pieces of cinema I have seen in a long time. A breath of fresh air to a somewhat clogged genre of sport films. The basic plot outline is of a young Mexican, Santiago Munez, who, with his family, crosses the boarder into America to pursue the classic "American dream". After getting noticed by an ex football talent scout, Glen Foye, played by the superb Stephen Dillane, he makes his way to England to trail for Newcastle United. With many humps and bumps along the way, this fairytale story eventually climaxes with Santiago gaining his place on the Newcastle United senior team. This heartwarming tale has it all, happiness, sadness, romance and some terrific "one-liners". The quality of football acting is also flawless and aided by the appearance of professional footballers such as Alan Shearer who really know how to use the leg weight machines in a gym. I would definitely give this film four yes's and recommend it to all cinema lovers - "he saw me play, he saw me play!"
I'm actually amazed by the positive reviews here...I can only assume that they are all done by English/European fans of Football who are either just blinkered or unduly grateful that there's at least some movie about their sport that they feel compelled to talk it up.The number one feeling I came away with from this is that Football just isn't exciting enough to transfer to the big screen.Its an average movie...at best...that makes a sport (which to be fair is fun to play...and the worlds most popular) look even worse than the boring drivel a normal televised league game looks. Don't get me wrong going to a match in England is OK, but the normal televised game is pretty rubbish from a neutrals perspective. So unless Soccer consumes your life as it appears to there...you are NOT going to enjoy this.I've seen baseball, golf...even rugby movies that are better than this and most of those sports are even less TV friendly than football.As to the actual movie....well its your average 'made for TV' quality good guy underdog makes it and then struggles with success/his morals blah blah that everyone has seen 100 times...except that this is even more lazily constructed, written, filmed and conveyed because I assume they just thought 1 billion football fans would go watch it regardless...and apparently they did.Seriously watch it if your life revolves around the insular world of English/European football....but if you have any other life then you are better spending 2+ hours actually living it.