Watch The Game of Their Lives For Free

Sorry, this movie sucks

One of my all time favorites.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

The victory of the United States over England in the first British participation in a football (soccer) World Cup, in Brazil 1950, has been a historical match which certainly deserves a good film. Unfortunately, "The game of their lives" is far from being good.It is full of clichés (the song, the narration, the military patriotic scene...) and prejudice (the black guy is the comic character, Haitians have exotic behavior and religion, Brazilians play samba and dance all the time...).Besides that, there are many historical inaccuracies that could be easily avoided (you can check them in Wikipedia). At least the team played with its proper jersey in the match.The screenplay is bad (too much obvious, exaggeratedly emotional) and the dialogs are poor and always fail in the goal of being funny. Indeed, the film is quite boring since its beginning and gets worse as you see its other problems.There are much better examples of an underdog story in a World Cup as a non-documentary movie. Serbian "Montevideo, God Bless You!", about Yugoslavian participation in the fist world tournament in Uruguay 1930, is very nice. "The Miracle of Bern", from Germany, about German first world triumph, against mythical Hungary in Switzerland 1954, is amazingly good, perfect! Though, in spite of the good real story, "The game of their lives" is disappointing.

This is a likable depiction of a little known event in American sports history; the defeat of soccer superpower England at the hands of an unknown, underfunded U.S. team (most of whom are sons of Italian immigrants) during the World Cup in Brazil in 1950. The film defines the characters, showing their Italian roots as well as their pride at being Americans without crossing the line into stereo-type. Their are a couple of moments that appear as if they're heading in that direction but, then the film deftly veers around it. The scenes on the pitch are exciting and compelling, particularly the ultimate match with the English. Even though the outcome is a matter of record, I was still captivated. Part of the reason for this might be all those shots of walking pheromone Gerard Butler as goalie Frank Borghi. (Disclaimer:Mr. Butler was the real reason I picked up this little film.) *Spoiler*I'm glad they included the real players that were still alive at the time of filming in the final scene. I'll watch this again. I rented it last night, bought it this morning.

Very worthwhile movie. Almost excellent.The cinematography might have been a little rough around the edges, mostly the accents of the actors got into the way as I could hear them straining to keep it American and NY and St. Louis. Some like Rhys-Davis had a strong accent and I wondered why.And...some of it was sentimental--especially the type of music they played in the background. But it was a sentimental story. It was based on a true story and those are harder to make into movies.Maybe the viewers didn't actually see the melding of the various players into a team but that was because it was internal--in their hearts and minds. It definitely was there in full blossom when they were down to the wire. Very well done.I liked the way the team members received their uniforms. It was something we need to do in this manner much more often. Shhh, don't miss this part.However, the acting was good. The actual game they played was spectacular!!! I was excited and anxious and rooting for our home team. I have never been drawn into a movie game like that before.It is well worth seeing. In fact, if you are a Gerard Butler fan like I am, you will probably buy it. I would like to see a movie about how they made this movie!!! (How many takes did it take for the goalie to do what he did, for instance?) Sandy Shire

This is a super story with lots of human interest and great soccer footage. Teaches you some sports history that most of the world is unfamiliar with -- especially since most Americans don't think the U.S. HAS a soccer history.The acting is pretty darn good. They strayed a bit from some of this historical truth -- the Haitian guy was NOT into voodoo. But I guess that's par for the course in any movie. Would have like to know what happened to everyone following the game that is highlighted in the movie, as well as which team won the 1950 World Cup. But it made me go out and do some research -- always a good thing.Definitely worth watching.