Best

As George Best has said, it is always difficult translating a sportsman's life to film, and this is no exception. In fact, the viewer needs to know the story of Best first to be able to follow the quick changes in character. We see George Best arriving in Manchester as a naive kid, experiencing a rapid rise to stardom, and just as swift a decline into alcoholic stupor, but without any idea of why. John Lynch co-wrote the script but seems all wrong for the charismatic Best. He remains sombre throughout, even when the team are on top. Ian Bannen gives a solid reading, in one of his last roles, as team manager Matt Busby, but again, the part is unlightening about his relationship with George. Of the supporting cast, I can only single out Linus Roache who is remarkably like the real Best teammate Denis Law, in speech and mannerisms.

The picture does have a lot of digitally retouched football footage, adding the actors into the action, but it is often shown from odd angles that lessen the impact. Why didn't they just use the actual players for these sequences ?

So, this joins the list of disappointing sporting lifes. Better to watch a documentary about the man instead to see the real magic.

Best is a very very boring film. There isn't any reason to watch it: even if you like football you are not interested in this character (I mean just the movie character, not the real George Best). You can't understand, during the film, the reason of his alcohol addiction, of his rebellion to every rules... So this George Best looks like a dumb guy, a star without a brain, able just to throw away all he owns.

Even the other characters are just masks: the good trainer and the bad trainer, the girl who tries to exploit him and the football player who hates him just because he is, above all, the best.

I think that both writers and director thought that would be very simple make a movie from a famous and scandalous football player as George Best, but movies are different from real life. It's not enough saying: things went this way. You might create something different...

I hope to see, soon, a good film about football.

As a Manchester United FC fan, I eagerly awaited the release of this picture. What a disappointment! It focuses on George Best's addictions to gambling, womanising and alcohol with a lets-get-out-the-violins perspective. The errors in the plot were glaring, for example, John Lynch (Best) is not the petite build his character was. The only actor to come out with credit was Linus Roache as Denis Law. But the director's habit of missing out years between scenes left me confused as to where it was up to. I should have liked this movie (I was in the crowd at Old Trafford when they shot one of the scenes) but I didn't - I was glad when the credits rolled.

Dissapointing telling of Georges life. It is just montages of him being drunk interwoven with his skills on the footy field. No character is really explored, we see Bobby Charlton recounting the Munich disaster, but that is as far as any characterisation goes. Decent performances, especially Lynch as when he plays the older George Best. The film is not Man United, more like Luton Town Reserves. Shame because it could of been so much more.

There are two big problems with this 2000 film, as viewed in 2013. One is that the life story of George Best (1946 - 2005) is now complete and that the final years (liver disease, sobriety, transplant, relapse into alcohol, death and national outpouring of grief) must be covered in any Bestie biopic.

The other is the casting of John Lynch as Best. Although he is reasonable as the saddened boozed-up older Best at the start and end of the film, the same actor cannot be used as the teenage phenomenon who burst onto the scene in the early 1960s and created the blueprint for the 'pop star' footballer, using his charm and good looks to endorse products (yes he did advertise sausages), open shops and do modelling.

With those two points out of the way, and they are substantial, the rest of the film isn't too bad. I liked the contemporary music (Good Vibrations, Green Onions, In a Broken Dream) but Cockney Rebel was a strange choice for the Northern Irishman. Maybe a bit of Thin Lizzie's Whiskey in the Jar would have suited better for the end credits. The major achievements of his career (1966 v Benfica, 1968 European Cup) are highlighted, though there's no mention of the league title they won in 1967. The almost equally famous team-mates Bobby Charlton, Denis Law, Nobby Stiles, Paddy Crerand are there, even though Tony Dunne appears to have lost his first name. The important father figures of Matt Busby and real dad Dickie Best are there too.

Linus Roche is particularly good as the practical joking Denis Law though Jerome Flynn not as good as hypochondriac Bobby Charlton. Patsy Kensit is surprisingly wooden as, I assume, a random girlfriend. Stephen Fry is another National Treasure but that doesn't mean that he should be shoehorned into every British film, nor that a film is necessarily improved by his inclusion.

This film really lost its way about fifty minutes in. The pace really slowed and it became difficult to watch. Did we really need to see stupid drunken conversations with his mates? However, it was good to see him put six goals past Northampton after a six-week lay-off. That did really happen, though the primal scream that follows in the film did not.

Where was Angie Best in all this? The American years? The international matches? The attempted come-backs at Fulham, Bournemouth, Stockport and Hibs? And the conversation with the deceased Matt Busby - oh dear! Overall, there needs to be a decent movie about George but this isn't it.