Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with what I believe is our first look at THE GAME OF THEIR LIVES, the soccer flick starring Wes Bentley, Patrick Stewart and John Rhys Davies, among others. Mrs. Mia Wallace didn't seem to enjoy the movie very much, but she did acknowledge it wasn't her type flick and that the rest of the audience really seemed to dig it. The flick comes out in in limited release next week.
Hi Moriarty, this is Mrs. Mia Wallace again.
Caught an advanced screening of "The Game of Their Lives" directed by David Anspaugh and written by Angelo Spizzo, who made "Rudy" and "Hoosiers." It stars Patrick Stewart, Wes Bentley, Gavin Rossdale, John Rhys Davies. It's about the 1950s World Cup Football tournament game where the American underdogs beat England against all odds.
Given all of the above information, I thought I was going to enjoy the movie. I didn't. I was ready to gouge my eyes out. Most of the dialgues was like "You're not going to win now, but you'll lay the groundwork for the American Team to win in 50 years." Okay, that's just baaaad writing. I was praying Rudy would show up. Another big complaint I have is that they made a big stink about the different ethnic/socio-economic backgrounds of the teammates and how they didn't get along at first, even calling each other Kraut and Dago, then nobody really objected when the only black person, who wasn't even American joined. Wouldn't somebody have called him boy or nigger and threatened to quit the team rather than share the field with him? I mean, they already set the premise up. Don't wimp out now, or it's just racist not to include him in the racism.
However, my screening audience clapped when our team made points, blocked points, clapped when the movie was over, and two friends of mine got all misty-eyed and sniffy. So, what the hell do I know? I'm not a big sports fan, but there was enough of a story and protagonist in Rudy and Hoosiers to make them great movies to me. I didn't see anything like that here.
To me, it was a bad movie of the week with on the nose dialogue, badly shot footage of the matches, awful swelling music, and completely unbelievable characters that were indistinguishable from one another. I also thought the non-soccer plots were preachy and too easily solved. It was very episodic to me. Here's a problem, boom, it's solved in the next scene by a dayplayer we're never going to see again. I was really looking forward to seeing Patrick Stewart again, but he has a minor role as the older version of a character that in the 1950s is American, but in the present day appears to be a Southern-Scottish blend. I don't get the appeal of the movie. But again, it had the crowd cheering and clapping.
You know what kind of movies you like. If you're into sports, or even if you equate sports with patriotism and the military, you might really enjoy the movie. Don't not go because of what I've said, judge for yourself. And it's a nice history lesson for kids, so take them with you.
