Goal! 3 - Taking On The World (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Disliked it
Story	Very ordinary
Characters / Performances	Unmemorable
Special Effects	Standard
Soundtrack	Unmemorable

Advantages:	I suppose you could say the actual World Cup Football footage .
Disadvantages:	Poor script  -  not much in common with Goal 2 and 3  -  tacky in parts .

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Goal 3 - Taking On The World

My son has been looking forward to this film since last year. We discovered the first two films and watched them by renting them from Lovefilm. It is imortant to know that in the main the first two films charted the upward path of Santiago Munez (Kuno Becker). These films were no award winners, but they did successfully play out the dream of most little boys. Yes, they definitely appealed to wannabe footballers, but were just enough to keep parents interested too. I had read poor reviews of Goal 3, but I ignored them and thought it can't be that bad - I was wrong...

Main Cast

JJ Feild - Liam Adams
Leo Gregory - Charlie Braithwaite
Kuno Becker - Santiago Munez
Nick Moran - Nick Ashworth
Kasia Smutniak - Sophia Rosse
Anya Lahiri - June

Basic Plot

The first thing to note is that this is not a continuation of Santiago's progress, his part is minor in relation to the first two films. In fact we see very little of him and his girlfriend (played by Anna Friel) is not mentioned nor plays a part. This time instead of the domestic backdrop or a European stage, the action centres around The 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. There are two other footballers as his pals this time, Charlie Braithwaite (Leo Gregory) and Liam Adams (JJ Feild). A film like this would not be complete without the personal lives being as central to the story as the action on the pitch. Charlie (who has taken a role in what looks like a soft porn movie as a sideline) meets up with a beautiful Italian actress (Sophia Tardelli). Liam meanwhile comes across an old girlfriend who has a surprise for him. Interspersed with personal anguish is actual football footage, with glimses of David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and Sven to name a few.

Also as a sideshow is a group of Geordie fans following the squad to their matches (they appeared in the first film), again not shown in a particularly pleasant light as English football fans abroad.

Opinion

The first thing that I will say is that if you were thinking of letting your son watch this (if he is short of 12) is that it is incredibly smutty including a soft porn film shoot, a drunken grope in a hotel room and innuendo galore, especially in the first 40 minutes. I thought that it was gratuitous and now that I know that it includes this aspect, I am not sure who this film is aimed at. I suppose there is some mileage in the teenage market, but for adults it is slow, boring and the only thing it makes you feel is impatience - to get to the end!

In fact I have to say that the porn film scene was cringe worthy and I had to busy my son with getting some popcorn so that I could hit the fast forward button. Not only was the scene a bad idea, it was poorly scripted and acted too. I am sure that they could have found a different way to introduce Charlie to his romantic interest.

The director was Andy Morahan and I believe he is a successul music video director. I can't see that he has worked on many feature films and perhaps that is the reason why I found that some of the acting lacked depth and really could have been performed better by a sixth form school production to be honest. I wasn't expecting a classic, but the acting was was cliched, wooden and lacking imagination, not helped by poor writing.

My son and I really missed Santiago as his role was tiny. Santiago made you want to root for the underdog - hoping the working class boy would succeed. He was sorely missed and I do not see what Kuno Becker added to this film apart from his name! The first two films made you really identify with his character, however using Charlie as a focus came a poor second. It was also done from a mostly British perspective, and showed you little of the backgrounds of the main leads, so you really didn't get a chance to know or like them. This film (mostly in the early stages) stereotyped everything that is wrong with British laddish culture. Although this changed somewhat towards the end, there was so little that was to do with football - the action and the suspense, so if this is what you like to see then you will be disappointed. I would also say that the sentimental sad scenes in particular were poorly acted and I felt nothing.

I am not sure exactly what the moral of the story was, I suppose it is that real life events are more important and significant than what happens on the pitch. The best part of the film was real action shots from actual World Cup Football matches, but I could watch those scenes on YouTube. This film really seems to have been a case of "get the third one out now and make some money". There seems to be have little in it to apeal to the fan base of the first two films.

The Soundtrack

The soundtrack was adequate but not memorable, there is not much more to add as it left no impression on me.

Extra Features

There is commentary with Director Andy Morahan and Producer Mike Jeffries. There are also interviews with the cast and crew. I watched the first one, but gave up after that as I could tell that this was not going to raise my opinion of the film in any way - if anything, it just made it worse as the interviews are interupted and disjointed with screen prompts asking the questions. One of the questions Charlie is asked is "Is it is just about football?" He says no - I can safely say on that one is he most definitely correct !! I think that is exactly where they went wrong with this film.

Overall

I gave this film 2 stars which I thought was most generous - that is because the actual football scenes are well put together (if not enough) and the music which was ok. Also the title 'Taking on the World' - was taking a little too far, seeing as there was little in the way of reference to other world teams. Of course this wasn't a big budget film, but even small budget doesn't excuse a poor poor script and bad concept to begin with. If you do insist on viewing this film, at least now you know what to expect.

Availability

The film is available from Amazon for £9.28, it is rated 12 and lasts 92 minutes. It was produced by Milkshake films. It was released 15th June 2009. My son gave it 1 out of 10 by the way.

I wouldn't even bother renting it, to be honest.

Not at all what I expected based on the first two films...

This review will also be published on Dooyoo under the same username.