GOAL II Fails to Score!

Posted on 8/28/2008

Sequels are nine times out of ten a tough sell.  The original GOAL was a story about a Mexican soccer player Santiago Munez.  He escapes the difficult life in Mexico and heads to America.  Eventually his dream of playing professional soccer comes true and he signs a contract with Newcastle United.  The sequel picks up there and Munez is transferred to Spanish giants Real Madrid.  There must have been plenty of delays in the release of this film, at least in North America, as Beckham, Ronaldo, and Zindane were all still with Real Madrid for this film.  The soccer portion of the film was quite good.  They used real footage from domestic games and Champions League games to make it look authentic.  There rest of the film was quite depressing.  Munez finds out he has a younger brother and he found his birth mother also living in Spain.  His English fiancée does not want to make the move to Spain and the film used every cliché in the book to portray the classic WAG (Wives and Girlfriends).  The jealousy, fighting and even the rain every time they showed you Newcastle had me wishing I could press fast forward.  Now I’m not sure what the producers are trying to achieve with this new flick.  My first thought was the Star Wars version of a soccer trilogy….yes there is going to be a third.  The first GOAL, like Star Wars, was the story of a young man living his dream and everyone leaves the theatre with a smile on their face.  GOAL II certainly had its dark side, like The Empire Strikes Back and it leaves a lot of unanswered questions, but you feel more like you’ve wasted your money in Goal II unlike Empire where you could not wait for Return of the Jedi.  Yes Real Madrid wins the Champions League at the end of this one, but the sub plots were old and drawn out.  Certainly many real football players probably go through similar ups and downs throughout their careers, but that does not always translate to the big screen.  I give this one 2.5 soccer ball out of five.