A Aposta

Wullie Smith (Max Beesley) is a handicapped young man with a serious trauma: his brother Johnny died when they were young while climbing a mountain because of his fault. He works as a milkman in a tiny city in Scotland and has a crush on Rosemary Bailey (Laura Fraser). However, he is too shy to declare his love to her. Every night, Wullie meets his friends in a pub called `Bennys'. This place is the fruit of a bet made one hundred years ago, against another pub, `Le Bistro'. In that time, their owners firmed a stake: Bennys would never win Le Bistro in one hundred soccer games along one hundred years. The winner of the bet would take possession of both pubs. In the present, Bennys has lost the previous ninety-nine games, and needs desperately to win the last game. I bought this DVD maybe two years ago in a sale offer, and I have not paid attention to it until today. I have just seen it, and it is a delightful and exciting movie. The story is indeed a comedy, but has also drama and romance. The cast has a great performance and makes the viewer cheers in many situations. I am Brazilian, land of the soccer (The British invented this game, and we improved it), and five times world champion, and I love soccer. This movie has absurd, such as the couch, who is handicap, decides the game shooting a penalty in the end of the match, but who is caring to that? The important thing is `the good guys' win `the bad guys', and this is achieved. It is a very funny situation, because in Brazil, we soccer fans have a saying, which is: `Penalty is so important that the president of the club should be responsible for shooting it'. Therefore, for us Brazilians, it is very funny the foregoing mentioned situation. Pierce Brosnan has a surprisingly participation in the end of the story. This film is highly recommended for fans of soccer. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): `A Aposta' (`The Bet')

It's undeniable that this kind of plot was worked and reworked in many movies but "The Match" has a wonderful locale and a decent cast (also starring the American Tom Sizemore). The team of misfits subject is here handled focusing on quirky characters and on a romantic basis (Willie is still in love with his childhood friend Rosemary). This small-town comedy - with a little Pierce Brosnan cameo - dealing with the underdog theme and the football/soccer popularity, could somehow remind other working class stories but it's completely different from Ken Loach pictures because is less centered on social problems and more on a melhancoly atmosphere. However it works

Now this one is a remarkable little gem. The plot is very sympathetic, it has no great ambitions to prove it's a box-office topper, it has a kindness and warmth many a film lack these days, or even, I dare say, these decades. This film is proof that we still need a British film industry, for it has a very strong cast, a very well-written script, and very human elements to deal with. The film really aims at your heart and hits. It's funny, it's real, it is alive. The British these days are really very good at making films that are about all things human but which are not boring; this one is a very good example of it along with Notting Hill, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and The Full Monty (yes, NH is actually US-backed, but it is typically English). When Americans try to be this life-like, the result is as boring as Dancer, Texas, pop. 81. I had just picked this one up for it starred Max Beesley that I had liked at the TV series Tom Jones and the ever-charming Richard E. Grant. I am very pleased that I made a very right decision not only for the two were great to watch -especially Beesley proves he is a very good and versatile actor and he manages a near-perfect West of Scotland accent unlike Richard E. Grant- but for it is a very good film as well. The acting's brilliant, the main event so small and unimportant that it proves life is not actually about saving the world from great enemies of humanity but is a structure made out of small, delightful and not-so-delightful elements; and that love, friendship, competition, are all nice, human desires and are there to be shared. This is one hell of a feel-good film and I hope anyone seeing this review will watch it. It'll make you feel good and human, too. This is the very film if you're feeling bored of all the Cruises, Damons, Willises of Hollywood, for it proves how you can be a very good actor and still not play-act as well. I definitely recommend this to anyone who still thinks cinema is about things human and not necessarily expensive and superhuman/surreal/ridiculous.

I am reviewing this film as an ex pat actor from the UK watching it for the first time in Australia.

Initially I thought Max Beesley had a look of Ewan Mcgregar.

His performance is shows that he his equally talented. The selection of cast and music is a typically British gem. I personally love this style of raw talent. Putting Alan Shearer and Sam Fox into the cast is bizarre but work so well.

Pierce Brosnan you are a star. I love your acting and now I am a fan of your producing.

andy@andy-croft.com

Although this is clearly low budget, and full of sports clichés (also a goofy plot idea), the music is wonderful, and I thoroughly enjoyed the show. The opening scene to "Hot Love" by T Rex hooked me, and the scene of the underdog team taking the field is also a delight. "FBI" by The Shadows is a musical treasure! I rarely notice music in movies, but this show had me checking all the musical credits at the end. The love story is more than a bit juvenile, but again it is well-intended, and it did not detract from the story. Sometimes coarse language will put off some viewers, but this is still a good-hearted movie. "Fever Pitch" is of course a better soccer show, and this will never be remade as a baseball show, but you do not need to be a soccer fan to enjoy it.