mfkickabout

It's a shame this series was cancelled. It screams that it was a show that was being pulled in so many directions, with high network hopes, that it couldn't help but fail because it wasn't that kind of show. In a way, this show needs a second series because the final episode is an incredibly successful cliffhanger. The question they raised, almost of the duality of man, mid-season is taken a step further but Rob Lowe probably wouldn't work cheap enough to have a show that could go straight into worldwide syndication. A far more interesting character was born from the end of this series. I know they did it just to create an "outlandish" ending but I'm gagging for more.

In a way, they didn't know what they had until it was too late.

Arguably *the* World Cup story of all-time. The unknown team from Communist North Korea play in the 1966 World Cup, win the hearts of the English working class and are only sunk by a virtuoso performance from one of the best players in the world. This is their story.

From the opening moments of the film, to the archive footage and the interviews with the passionate team, this film struck a chord with me and was more than just about football but the North Korean spirit. We remember the fluke result against Italy but this shows the other victories that can be achieved through passion and hard-work. They came to win the cup but they won British hearts in the process. The slant on the documentary isn't really political but the passion with which the Koreans speak of Kim Il Sung, they convey what he means to them in one of the most touching moments of the film. They wanted to win for their people, their leader and their country but nobody can call them losers.

A joy to watch and I give it the highest recommendation.

I had a very hard time with this film. See, when a film has it's heart truly in the right place, I often find myself loathed to criticise. The film does have some very funny moments throughout the first half but then it starts to deaden out.

For me, the problem is that there are too many characters so it becomes hard to feel for those characters when they conclude their stories. This film needed to be cut down at the script stage because the film is not long enough to do the job properly and is too long to appeal to the correct audience. While I've enjoyed their previous work (and it would have robbed us of an enjoyable wedding scene), Keira Knightley and Andrew Lincoln are unnecessary and Laura Linney's character didn't add to the film at all. It's hard to decide what they were setting out to do here. In amongst this sprawling mess, there is a good film waiting to get out. Scrap that - there are two good films waiting to get out of this film. Laura Linney's tale of a woman who puts duty to her family and work before finding happiness intrigued me and could easily have been a feature on its own. The Thompson/Rickman tale of a married man who is tempted by another and the wife who knows and tries not to say for fear of breaking up her family. However, in reading those ideas again, none of these are original and that brings me onto my next point.

What we have is a diluted film, held together by an unoriginal, "It all ties together" plot that is not to dissimilar to that of "Playing By Heart" and Bill Nighy played a similar, burnt-out rocker in "Still Crazy". On the whole, this film is horribly unoriginal, mildly saved by half-decent comedy writing and laughs. There's an enjoyable film in there, if only they could filter out what doesn't work.