Kickoff

This film was a disaster. I was expecting a campy gay version of Bend It Like Beckham. That would have had a lot of potential. But the actors in this film had no soccer skill at all. The soccer game itself was interrupted so many times, it was impossible to follow. Probably because of budget, they couldn't even field a full team, just five to a side! The plot made little sense, and the dialog was flat.

The only bright point was the excellent performance by the camp gay step dad played by writer Rikki Beadle-Blair. The movie might have been better if they focused on that relationship before the game day, and then cut most of the game itself.

Talented young actors are let down by the overbearing and self-absorbed Rikki Beadle-Blair, who shoehorns himself into every scene he can, a queasy clown (without the jokes) whose self-regard is matched only by his ability to grate on the audience (he wrote, directed and stars).

A gay football comedy with an attractive cast ought to have been a runaway success, but this own goal sank without a trace on its release.

Whilst not as bad as Beadle-Blair's appallingly misjudged and abrasive Bashment, KickOff is cack-handed, overwrought and unfunny.

The cast deserved better than this.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, mainly because of the cartoon nature of most of the characters. The story, although it centres around a 5-a-side football game, is mainly around the characters playing - all of them caricatures, outrageously camp / butch / etc. That's why I found the film so funny.

If, however, you are expecting it to be a film about football then you'll be disappointed. Indeed the game starts and stops so many times that anyone trying to follow the match itself will be frustrated. Think of this football match as some sort of common thread which joins up each of the characters.

Ricky Beadle-Blair himself is a riot and I agree with another reviewer that he should have been a central character in the film. He must do a film in which he stars and is in nearly every scene. He's as good on-screen as he is producing / writing. etc. Let's have an "All about RBB" movie!!

I bought the DVD and, having watched it once, I will definitely be watching it again from time to time (unlike most of my other bought DVDs).

Even though the movie is quite amateurish, with not much production value, it has heart. It is very adorable and the diversity of characters gives a lot of flavour to the story. My only problem with the movie was that as English is not my native language and I didn't have subtitles, I've had a really hard time understanding large portions of dialogues. The accents are pretty heavy, so a lot of time, I tried to guess out of context. I would probably give the movie a higher vote if I would know what it was about ;) I found the gay team very funny and even the most neurotic, paranoid character (the team leader) was quite adorable. Another thing I liked - without spoilers - is a very unexpected twist in the terms of bullying. That was very refreshing. All in all, a very cute movie.