Sixty Six (2008)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Good movie but grossly overrated

The acting in this movie is really good.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Another almost there movie. It is let down by the fact that it is meant to be a comedy, but it is just not funny enough. Everything else is bang on except perhaps some of the characterisations, the only one I really warmed to was the blind rabbi and his dog (which produces most of the laughs!) I'm not from this world and it seems to really enjoy this film, it has to strike a chord. Well there was no resonance for me, I had to be made to laugh just using what was on the screen.Regarding the laugh count I think the makers realised this was low too as demonstrated by the: 'what's that drink? It's a bloody Mary. Alright I was only asking' gag. Smacks of desperation I'm afraid.Even so the nice warm ending was worth waiting for.

'Sixty-Six' is yet,another comedy from the United Kingdom that goes down easy without any unpleasant side effects (in short,a slight, albeit winning good time). The plot concerns Bernie Rubens,a young Jewish boy of English background who is about to make his Bar Mitzvah,only to find out that it's concurrent with England competing against Germany for the World Cup of 1966. Set against all of Bernie's teen angst is some nicely told tales of his eccentric father (Eddie Marsden,seen recently as the bitter automobile instructor in Mike Leigh's 'Happy Go Lucky'), who runs a small green grocer with his Uncle,his loving Mother (Helena Bonham Carter,always welcome on screen),his older Brother,Alvy, and a host of others. The film has a snappy,well written screenplay (loosly based on the director's own life & experiences when he had his Bar Mitzvah,and even contains some actual home movie footage of the festivities). Stephen Rea also has some slight,but nice screen time as a doctor. This is a film that has been getting some sketchy distribution in the United States,but is worth seeking out (it was originally released in 2006). Rated PG-13 by the MPAA,this film contains a bit of raunchy language,a flash of nudity & some adult situations. Okay for older teens.

I saw this film last night and really enjoyed it but was struck by the mixture of hilarious comedy and deep pathos. Sometimes it is too painfully sad to be funny- maybe that's how comedy works! The last twenty minutes set me thinking how derivative the film is. Has anyone noticed a similarity between Das Mirakel von Bern and this film ? Both are about the troubled relationship between father and son; both centre on a world cup final; both feature a desperate race at the end to get to the final and both sets of parent/child jump over the ticket barrier to get to the game! I enjoyed both films in spite of their similarities; I think the writers could have injected even more humour into 66, even if there are some genuinely side-splitting moments

I like all kinds of movies, and this quiet, thoughtful, 'homemade' kind of Brit-flick was enjoyable. There's not much of a plot--- a kid's approaching bar mitzvahs happens to fall on the same day as the 1966 soccer World Cup Final match. That scheduling conflict means no one will attend his event, and he has been taught and primed to expect the bar mitzvahs to be the most significant and important day in his life. So he is freaking out a bit--- but the soccer game is an issue only if Englands winds enough qualification games to enter the finals, and no one expects them to. Done. That's the plot. Obviously, the Big Day arrives; I leave it to you to discover how England fares, and how the kid's family life unfolds.An important sub-plot is the kid's family. the dad is a retiring and overly-shy shlub, contrasted with his dynamic and 'life of the party', go-getter brother, the kid's uncle. The kid's older brother is a vicious bully, and his mom (Helena Bonham Carter) is the only loving, reasonable voice of strength in the family. Oh--- the kid's blind rabbi and bar mitzvahs coach, and Stephen Rae as the kid's physician also play a guiding roles for the boy.Anyway--- things kind of creep along for the first half. It became a bit tedious, and I contemplated leaving. However, the second half was much perkier than the first, and the ending was genuinely exciting and thrilling. So, overall, while the pace was bit uneven, the end result was a pretty satisfying movie. In retrospect, I kind of wished the front end could have been a bit racier, or less 'portraiting' of the depressing family, or something. On balance, I liked it.