Azeem Sheikh
England crash out of the World Cup on penalties, one of the players dies, and there's even some fetish vampires and midgets, for the kids.They should have stayed with just the first 2 and Kuno Becker should have stayed with no hair, he looks hideous loll.Still a good movie for soccer fans, more story in this one than soccer action.I loved the first two but this one ugh this I HATED!The movie is supposed to be about Santiago Munez (Kuno Becker) and what happened after the second one but this is just crap! I couldn't even finish watching it thats how bad it was.misses the charm of the first 2 episodes... To much green screen and a less interesting lead character makes Goal III a disappointing end of this soccer-trilogy
DICK STEEL
Goal 1 tracked the rise of upcoming Mexican player Santiago Munez, who got lifted from the streets of the central American Mexico City into the English Premiership, signing for Newcastle United and being introduced to just about every struggle and shenanigan that comes associated with on pitch, and off pitch activities. Making his mark, he got earmarked for regional European competition as he got transfered to Real Madrid in Goal 2, where his exposure to the likes of the Galacticos made him quite the big headed player especially off the field, with his footballing skills raking him riches beyond his wildest dreams, and at the same time his character and morals fly toward bankruptcy.Both films were fairly successful and appealed to footballing fans, making it to the big screen and a third film was mooted that tied and lead it logically to the third film to be on the sport's greatest stage, the World Cup. Alas here comes the problem from a narrative standpoint. Santiago Munez can only turn out for Mexico, and we all know, with all due respect, how far the national team can go when up against powerhouses from Europe and South America. No writer can alter the course of the character's history by making him turn out for Spain, or England, so that's that. And even then, what else is there to say about the Santiago character that hasn't already been covered in the first two films?So with an obviously smaller budget, the attention moved from Santiago, which is a pity given Kuno Becker's screen charisma as a footballer, and onto his Real Madrid teammates (seen for the first time here, not featured in Part 2) Charlie Braithwaite (Leo Gregory) and Liam Adams (JJ Feild), both Englishmen - seriously, Real Madrid having two Englishmen in their ranks, and both strikers at that? - and since they're into the close of the season, have finally been told of their inclusion into Sven Goran Eriksson's squad. Then the other suspension of belief comes in the form of the three players all finding time to travel to Romania for Charlie's part time film career, where he meets up with the gorgeous actress Sophia Rossi (Kasia Smutniak) who naturally hooks up with him. And on and off you'll find the footballers, during the World Cup season, scooting off for some wining and dining, not that they can't, but I thought would be under more controlled circumstances since the weight of the country's expectations are on their shoulders. Still, I am in no better position to know what goes on behind the scenes for World Cup preparations, although the filmmakers did keep the paparazzi always close by for continuous photography opportunities each time the footballers step out of their comfort zones.With Santiago so easily written out of the way in the World Cup by scribes Mike Jefferies and Piers Ashworth, the footballing focus falls onto Liam and Charlie's stint with the English team, whether they will make it to the starting eleven in Germany, or be relegated to the bench. Budget constraints automatically implied they started where they should, with stock footage of the actual English games taking precedence, with the likes of Rooney and Captain Beckham playing central roles. Which is a pity, because what made Goal fun, was the blend of fictional and real characters on the same pitch interacting as if it's for real, and this one had extremely limited pitch action, and when the characters do come on, it's as if they're playing on their own without much support from their real life counterparts, much less a whiff of recognition. And not to mention the very rough and raw visual effects when compared to what the first two films had done in this blending aspect.So the rest of the film got stuffed with the dealing of the more emotional front of Liam, who through his agent Nick (Nick Moran) found his one time squeeze June (Anya Lahiri) and a daughter he never knew he had, and the romance between Charlie and Sophia. And in an effort to expand the film into the realm of the fans, follows a group of Englishmen going on the road into Germany to get themselves up close with the World Cup action, played more for slight comedy. If one were to take a step back, it's not a bad thing to have this film take on a much broader view on the sport in general rather than to follow Santiago Munez solely, but from the get go it felt like being thrown at the deep end of a pool with no returning characters (save for Munez's bit parts here and there) thereby alienating this film tremendously from its predecessors.It's always a pity when you witness how films that embark on a franchise get to lose their way because of the lack of finances or making a follow up without a strong storyline. Granted that having to make the film in the same vein as the first two, and now gearing toward the largest stage of the sport will be something of a daunting task, but to pare it down to the bare minimum, what had made it fun for football fans to turn up in the cinemas for some fantasy football action, is what tanked this from a theatrical release, to a very quiet DVD release instead.
mkaide
I'll leave it to Santi who says it best: "I've seen the movies and I know how easy it is to mess these things up..." Apologetic and he should be. Having seen 'Plan 9 from Outer Space', I scarcely believe this could have been worse had been directed by Ed Wood himself. Let's not mistake the preceding Goal films for classics, at best they felt as though they were written by a 10 year old with the sort of stilted dialogue that would give an episode of 'Footballer's Wives' an almost poetic feel, but only by comparison.This film has an abortive feel throughout. It's evident the makers lost credibility with the profession gatekeepers as there is nothing like the access the preceding films could boast. Cameos from Shearer, Casillas, Beckham and Ronaldo, etc are limply matched this time around against the glitz of the chuckle brothers Mike Ashley and Paul Kemsley and some of the worst green scene work you could ever come across.I could go on about Santiago's already cliché-ridden story being butchered by an even more soporific storyline involving two of the least interesting and sympathetic characters ever conceived. I could talk about how characters integral the trilogy are conspicuously absent (evidently some actors/actresses wanted to preserve some semblance of dignity out of this farce), the taxi driver who for some reason is in almost every scene, the Geordies who resemble Harry Enfield's Scousers (minus the humour). In any case those issues were posthumously examined by a 1001 other reviews before mine, and most likely reflective of the filmmakers, I really couldn't care less. This is absolute garbage and it really makes you wonder how anyone involved could really work again.
