Goal! - The Dream Begins (2006)

Quite horrible, actually

This is actually much worse than Rudy or Hoosiers, as in way more cliched, predictable, and ultimately unbelievable. And I love soccer. I got a hell of a lot more out of watching Bend it Like Beckham, which has far more compelling human elements mixed in with the fantasy. But Goal! is mildly disturbing, ridiculous fantasy. It actually made me wince. Plus I generally cringe at the idolatrous worship of Premier League football. I personally prefer Serie A, La Liga, and the regional MLS and USL clubs. And kicking it around the yard, of course. You could do a lot better than watch this. June 8, 2008

Warm & entertaining . . . it also offers some interesting life lessons!

I am not a football fan, although I had been to a real foot-ball stadium, & that was about thirty years ago. It was in Dortmund, West Germany, where I was undergoing factory training with O & K Orenstein Kopel AG.

A German service engineer had invited me to watch a foot-ball match between the home team & a team from Munich, during one weekend. I can't recall who won, but to me that was the first & the last time I had seen a real foot-ball game.

Since I am not a football fan, I don't watch the EPL or World Cup on television. In fact, I just don't understand why people can get so frenzy with watching foot-ball matches on television.

The last time I had seen a foot-ball match on television was while watching the action movie, 'Escape to Victory'. It starred Sylvester Stallone & Michael Caine, plus a handful of real-world foot-ballers - Pele, Bobby Moore - I could not recognise the others.

The movie was about a foot-ball match between a ragtag group of Allied prisoners & a German foot-ball team, which the Nazis had originally planned to promote as a propaganda event during WWII. To the chagrin of their German captors, the Allied prisoners had used the closing of the game as a brilliant escape with the spectators.

Last night, after channel surfing, & also checking out the synopsis, I finally settled down to watch a movie entitled 'Goal! The Dream Begins'.

Frankly, all the actors or actress in the movie were unknown, at least to me, with the exception of Tony Plana, whom I last saw as the prison warden in the action movie, 'Half Past Dead', opposite Steven Seagal, who played an undercover agent.

In a nutshell, the movie traced the exploits of a young Mexican immigrant, Santiago Nunez (played by Huno Decker, a Latin American actor) from Los Angeles, working in the building maintenance crew with his divorced father (played by Tony Plana).

He often dreamed of becoming an international foot-ball star. In fact, he spent most of his evenings in street-corner matches.

One day, while dribbling with his ball, he was spotted by Glen, a visiting talent scout from UK, who was a retired foot-ball player with Premiership Club Newcastle United.

Glen called his ex-boss/club manager, Erik, to inform him of his talent finding. Erik agreed to give the young man an opportunity, & Glen invited Santiago to come to UK.

Santiago's hard-headed father was dead against the whole idea, as he believed that the entire family could only made it through hard-work by setting up their own building maintenance business. To discourage the son, the father even snatched part of the son's own meagre savings to pump into the new business.

Fortunately, his grand-mother was supportive of his dreams, & managed to get him an air-ticket & some cash to fly to UK via Mexico city.

Upon arrival, he got in touch with Glen, who invited him to stay in his private home. Glen then arranged for him to go for his "screen test" under the watchful eye of Erik.

It was raining heavily that fateful day, & the foot-ball grounds were a muddy mess, & so poor Santiago flunked his first "screen test".

Glen pleaded to Erik to give the young man a chance. Santiago got one month to prove himself.

At this point, the movie traced his trials & tribulations as a rookie in the premiership club. As usual in most movies, he also got romantically entangled with a beautiful nurse. He also got teamed up with another newly recruited footballer, Gavin, from Germany.

The latter was a night owl & party animal, who introduced him to the booze, the parties, the clubbing, & the women, often associated with the decadent lifestyle of foot-ball stars we read in the papers.

Santiago (as well as Gavin) almost got kicked out of the club, if not for the unwavering support of Glen, the nurse/girl-friend, the coach, & of course, the club manager/boss, Erik, who truly saw the raw talent in the young man.

It was quite fun to watch Erik showing the young man the importance of being a team player in a club, & sharing some important pointers about game discipline.

I like one particular confrontation dialogue between Erik & Santiago, who uttered: "The only one who can tell me I'm not good enough is you. And even then I may not agree with you."

Of course, the movie ended with a critical match in London, where both Santiago & Gavin finally demonstrated their natural ballistic prowess with their heads & legs.

I have really enjoyed watching the movie. Despite some minor technical goofs here & there, & from an overall standpoint, it has been entertaining & warm to watch. Interestingly, David Beckham had a cameo role in the movie.

For me, it also has many interesting learning points.

In the course of pursuing our fondest dreams, one should always remember all the people who cared, especially those who have extended their encouragement &/or help in one way or another as we move forward.

In the case of Santiago, his grand-mother, his mentor in the person of Glen, his girl-friend, his coach in the club, & of course, the club manager/boss, Erik, all played their contributing part in his journey to personal success.

Even his hard-headed father, who often refused to acknowledge the son's phone calls whenever the latter had called home, had drilled into him the importance of standing up for himself, with no excuses whatsoever.

In fact, the father was very proud of his son, when he happened to witness one of his son's foot-ball matches on television, while visiting a local pub in Los Angeles.

This important fact was only made known to Santiago by the grandmother, after the father had died of a sudden heart attack on a job site. The earlier news about his father's unexpected demise had somewhat tormented him, which affected his training.

This personal realisation about his father's eventual acknowledgement certainly gave him the necessary closure to move on with his own life as a foot-ball star. In fact, that was his defining moment, as he had earlier made several vain attempts to seek understanding & recognition from his angry father.

What I am saying in the end analysis is that, warm support of the spouse &/or family plays a very important role in one's journey in life. May 17, 2008

Very watchable, but...

Filled with cliches, stereotypes, and music videos for the MTV crowd. But hey, it's got soccer! No, seriously, it feels like it could've been edited to half this length. But as I was logging on to write this review, I learned there was a sequel. Okay, that explains the length! It's not exactly full of surprises, telegraphing everything well in advance despite not really needing to telegraph such an old hat of a plot. And yet, like the title of this review says, very watchable. I didn't turn it off. I couldn't decide between 2 and 3 stars until I saw all the gushing reviews by everyone else. They need to be offset, because this is a far cry from, oh, BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM or WE ARE MARSHALL. March 14, 2008

GOOOOOAAAALLLLLL !!!!

I like it a lot. personally. it's an everyday story of getting where you want to be or go. No matter the tests that you have to pass to get to the top. Well done it is great to see soccer pro players like Raul,Ronaldhino,Beckham or Zidane not forgetting the great views of the Soccer stadiums. About time for us the soccer lovers to have a movie about that sport. About the bluray dvd. personnal opinion It really makes a tiny difference against HDDVD I said a tiny because comparing the 2 formats which are the ones I have. My 360 and a stand alone bluray unit. I do see the difference when watching movies.
February 15, 2008

Dreams can come true

I have this movie on Blue Ray and the quality was absolutely fantastic as AI am sure is the standard format. All that aside this movie is fantastic, it has a way of pulling you into the movie and making you feel how Santiago must have felt during the final game of the movie and how hard he worked to get there. Its a real tribute to people who step out there on there own with only there dreams to make it happen. February 5, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...