Reviews of soccer movies and football films
Soccer, football, and Fußball movies targeted at children, adolescents, youth audiences
In the Disney Air Bud franchise, a dog named Buddy plays on all the sports teams at a high school. In Air Bud 3: World Pup, Buddy’s owner joins the team because of the new girl from England (who is the best player).
Continue reading “‘Air Bud World Pup’ (2001) dogs and funny referees”
When a red Coca Cola soccer ball falls from the sky, the school janitor takes this as a sign that he must revive the soccer tradition of his village. With the help of a former pro who has come home to run his father’s tiny store, janitor Don Pepe assembles team Atlético San Pancho. The school team progresses to the Cocoa Cola Championship game, played in the Azteca stadium.
Continue reading “‘Atlético San Pancho’ (2001) cows and Coca Cola”
In Soccer Dog: The Movie, a 34 year old man, who grew up in a orphanage, moves to a true soccer town. Realizing he can’t participate in the fun without a son, he and his wife return to the orphanage to adopt a young teenage boy, who subsequently brings home a stray dog.
Continue reading “‘Soccer Dog: The Movie’ (1999) well done in good fun”
The Big Green is a formulaic Disney movie about an underdog soccer team. Disney knows how to create a film that doesn’t age, and that can be shown to successive generations of little kids for decades. The Big Green is the Disney equivalent of a Twinkie.
Continue reading “‘The Big Green’ (1995) a timeless Disney soccer movie”
Gracie is one of the few fictional movies where the director and producer work hard to make the soccer look authentic. It’s the story of a soccer-crazed family whose first born son dies in high school, so his younger sister Gracie tries to take his place on the boys’ soccer field. In the 1970s in New Jersey, that required invoking Title 9.
Continue reading “‘Gracie’ (2007) – made by people who love the game”
La Copa de los Sueños, or The Cup of Dreams, or Soccer Dreams is a low-budget soccer film. Shot in Tijuana, the orphans in a children’s home enter a tournament in order to win enough money to pay for the house mom’s brain tumor surgery.
Continue reading “‘La Copa de los Sueños’ (2007) a low-budget futbol film”
Big Brother Trouble is a terribly boring kids movie from Hemisphere Entertainment. An 11 year old boy is infatuated with his new 16 year old neighbor, but he becomes outraged that she is attracted to his big brother, a star soccer player.
Continue reading “‘Big Brother Trouble’ (2000) good soccer but not entertaining”
Just For Kicks is possibly the worst kids soccer movie ever made. The problem is not the classic underdog plot. The story is nonsensical, and the acting by the Sprouse twins is as wooden as a pair of goal posts.
Continue reading “‘Just 4 Kicks’ (2002) is deplora-ball times two”
Steve Guttenberg is well known for his successful movie franchises, and maybe that’s why he decided to star in his second soccer movie, Home Team. He also has done charity work for foster children, and in this family film, such kids help him find redemption. The story is pretty much Mighty Ducks on a soccer pitch.
Continue reading “‘Home Team’ (1999) is Steve Guttenberg’s Mighty Ducks”
Die Wilden Kerle 2, aka The Wild Soccer Bunch 2, is popular in Germany, and maybe there it is family friendly. Maybe you have to be raised in Germany and understand German fairy tales to appreciate this movie. I thought I had accidentally switched channels to a nightmare sequence in a Fellini movie.
Continue reading “‘Die Wilden Kerle 2’ (2005) seems inappropriate”
Shaolin Family Soccer is a movie whose title tries to ride the coat tails of Steven Chow’s popular Shaolin Soccer.
One of the actors, Wong Yat Fei (aka Yut Fei Wong), is in both movies as a Shaolin monk who can head the ball with such force that he can rip the ball through the goal net, bloody the goalkeeper’s hands, etc. Hence he is named Iron Head in the first movie.
Continue reading “‘Shaolin Family Soccer’ (2004) imitates Mrs. Doubtfire”