dopeydave98 OK... if ever there was a movie that needs to be taken with a pinch of salt then this is it. In the final present day scenes the voice over actually says "still considered the greatest upset in World Cup history" which actually made me laugh out loud. I'd be interested to know who actually thinks that. So let's get a few facts straight.England (and I do mean England not "the Brits" as they are referred to in the movie) were not considered the best team in the world, that was Brazil. The World Cup in 1950 was not the event it is today. Many of the best teams were not present due to the cost of getting a team over to Brazil. The game was a first round group game, so nobody won anything, or even progressed. In fact the US lost their other two games and England proved they weren't the best by losing to Spain as well. All of this seems to be conveniently omitted from the movie.However I will forgive all of this and focus on the single event, which seems to be the movies intention. "The Game of Their Lives" as a title is somewhat off the mark. A better title might be "The Day England Couldn't Hit A Barn Door", or perhaps "The Keeper Played A Blinder". These kind of games happen all the time in football. The best team hits the woodwork several times, their striker misses a sitter or two, the opposition keeper plays out of his skin. Then the underdogs get a dodgy penalty, or an own goal or (as in this case) a deflected shot goes in. And there we have it 1-0.And that's the problem with the movie, it just wasn't that big a deal. This has happened many times in World Cup history. Korea beating Italy in '66, Algeria beating West Germany in '82, Cameroon beating Argentina in '90, Senegal beating France and Korea beating Italy (again) in '02. All these wins were against World Cup winners and are certainly considered bigger upsets in the scope of World Cup history. Even looking at this from the USA's point of view it's skewed. They made the semi finals in 1930 and in 2002 reached the Quarter Finals beating Portugal and Mexico along the way. Both these performances are more worthy than the 1950 exploits.So if we view the movie as an uplifting piece of fiction it doesn't really work. Nobody scored a miracle goal. The team didn't become champions. So in this sense it fails too. The movie is well made and the cinematography is great. Solid performances but very clichéd characterisations. It just seems to me the screenplay picks and chooses which facts to go with and which ones to blatantly ignore. Including the first game against Spain would have added to the story. At least there would have been the element of winning off the back of a defeat.There are many better underdog movies out there, most of which actually stick to the facts.

crystallopez80 It was a good movie, but it just didn't have the same heart and push as "Remember the Titans" or "Rudy", etc to me. All the ingredients were there: underdogs, struggling to come together as a team, lots of raw talent but somehow, when it all was put together...it just didn't really get it done. The soccer scenes are done well and are exciting - coming from someone who doesn't know anything about soccer other than you can't touch the ball with your hands and you have to get it into net. It just left me thinking "that's it?" If Gerard Butler wasn't in it, I wouldn't watch it again. Incidentally, this is the only "underdogs beating all the odds" sports movie I've seen about adults...I wonder if that's the "missing" piece to this film? We root more for kids, and get more unbridled emotion from kids than adults, so we feel more?

maeindenver 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.

lane jarsonbeck I'm sure the producers were hoping for "MIRACLE" on a soccer field- but a dream is only a dream. After viewing this film you will find soccer less exciting than golf. The director spends an hour introducing the characters many of whom are underdeveloped and others who are unlikeable. They introduce a negro player who the coach insists can't join the team but the next day he joins and no one offers an explanation as to why it was so easy for him to join but that's o.k. since the coach never explained why he couldn't join in the first place. John Rhys Davies plays the coach and if you find Davies a fairly lame actor you won't be disappointed he is dry and flat here as well. On to the big tune up game- well it was kind of quick and for some reason in the 2 minutes they show of the game they decide the center "must go!!". The audience knows not why since we never saw him play in those 2 minutes nor does the director show/ explain the importance of his role on the team (11 players on the field the center is the reason the team sucks you'd think this would be a nice time to touch on a few points about the role of center in soccer). On to the big game. The first half is 4 minutes then the coach comes in for a lame-o speech proving him the least inspiring leader written for the silver screen(kind of sad when you consider they had days into the shoot for dramatic rewrite- way to go MR. Director) the second half is 3 minutes and the film ends without the audience being lifted by the event! Perhaps the director should have spent less time under developing unlikeable characters and more time on the heart and soul of the game because there was no drama!!! no sign of exhaustion by the players no sacrifice on the field no sign of I assure you this director had no game plan taking on this project!! In fact he had less than that since the 1950 U.S. World Cup team had no game plan but walked away with a victory!! Not even worth a $5.50 walmart dump bin purchase. I gave it a 4 since I could at least see an effort- but it was a bad movie.