David Beckham: Into the Unknown

I'm far from a football or David Beckham fan, but I really enjoyed this. It was a great insight into his life, personality and some of the restrictions of his fame. I was impressed by him in this and it certainly humanised his character... plus I dream of these kinds of adventures. The production was spot on and the presentation was great.

David Beckham and three friends use bikes, cars, planes and boats to traverse a section of the Amazon and visit a native tribe. There is enough here to keep you interested but it doesn't live up to the heights of other adventure travel documentaries. It plays out like a super expensive version of a package adventure holiday.

Beckham proves himself to be a genuinely nice, family focused man, albeit a little dull and vane with regards appearance. His oldest and best friend is among the mates he brings along and he adopts an almost Karl Pilkington attitude to the whole trip, spending most of his camera time moaning about one thing or another. It doesn't really give the impression he appreciates this once in a lifetime trip that he's been taken on. Beckham also talks a lot about not being able to go anywhere without being recognised, I doubt it helps when you're being followed around by a camera crew.

At one stage they have some bike trouble and this is made into a big deal when it appears as though the chain has just slipped off, at worst it's snapped. Hardly trip ending fare, one of his friends is supposed to be a mechanic and I'm sure the support vehicles have spares up to their eyeballs.

A member of his production team seems to be in charge of health and safety on the trip and is quite strict regarding certain elements of the trip but has no trouble with them riding around in t-shirts on highways in the rain...

Overall I would say if you're interested in watching it please feel free but don't go into it expecting the heights of Long Way Round or the charisma either.

After really enjoying ewan mcgregors trips around and down we gave this one a try. It was super aweful listening to beckhams countless monologues about himself and how he can't stand leaving his family - as he has been a stay at home dad for the last 20 years. Everywhere they go a ready prepared meal and hammok awaits them. You feel like whatching a PR Show.

I would wager that the script was written by David's publicist. It seems all about trying to show David as a loving husband, a caring person, and an adventurer. In the end it gave me the impression that he is fake, self-absorbed, and somewhat boring.

It starts basically with him telling Victoria how much he is going to miss her as he says goodbye. And 20 minutes in they are sitting in a hotel room as he puts out pictures of his family, reads a letter Victoria put in his suitcase, and he talks about how much he misses them.

Just a reminder - we are talking about David Beckham who, in case you lived under a rock for 15 years, has been traveling the world as a football (soccer) superstar with his various teams, often without his wife and family. During his 15 year marriage he played for Manchester United, Real Madrid, the LA Galaxy, AC Milan, and Paris Saint-Germain. So I believe he traveled a lot without his wife and kids. so to spend the first 25 minutes of a 105 minute movie mostly talking about how much he will miss them seems quite a bit ridiculous.

Oh, and Victoria's main concern for David on this trip - that his hair would frizz up in the humidity. Posh Spice speaks again.

30 minutes in they are still in the hotel room - haven't even gotten into the amazon, let alone "into the unknown". They eventually leave, ride motorcycles for a while, have the bikes shipped so they can ride on a boat for a bit (most of the time David talking about his motorbike - not the Amazon, the trip, or the scenery). Later, reconnected with the bikes, they ride some more on a muddy road, making a big deal of them not yet being on the main road. When the bikes break down they fish with some locals for lunch and David is proud that he helped them catch lunch - BTW, something that would not have happened had there not been a breakdown.

At night they play hand-held video games - I think Flappy Bird was Davids choice. David bemoaned about being a long way from home. They showed him calling home on a satellite phone several times - exciting TV. He saw a lightening bug and thought it was his phone lighting up. He complains about not being able to shower.

I think you get the picture.

Basically it is a movie about David Beckham being out of his element, but they show little of the element that he is in. They show a rich boy "roughing it" with motorcycles, a crew to take care of him, meals prepared for him, a satellite phone to call out when he wants, video games to relieve the boredom of being out of the city and in one of the most beautiful places in the world, etc.

When he finally gets deeper into the Amazon they meet up with a local tribe that hasn't heard of him. He is clearly "into the unknown" at that point.

And again, more about his family. I am sure he loves his wife and kids. But they made a big deal throughout the show of how much he missed them (even though he called them daily) during this epic adventure. BTW, did I tell you - the trip was only 1 week.

You would have thought he was in the Amazon for 2 months the way he carried on.

This is a hugely embarrassing effort and quite a shockingly patronizing film. The first hint of the approach is in the title. It's all about him, I mean HIM. the great one and a great number of white folks visit (After 1 hour 15 mins of not much happening) Indians assembled by a missionary to be zoo creatures to be ogled. They are paraded with the usual titillating shots of naked teens which are de riguer in these films where the Indians are exotic curiosities. Ludicrously our protagonist, after hearing the difficulties experienced by the yamomane Indians, takes time towards the end of the film to lament how hard it is for him to make friends because he is so rich and famous. a final moan is how busy he is ( he's actually retired) and how he and his assorted buddies roughed it ( no showers for six days). Fortunately this film is so dull and self indulgent it won't attract any viewers.