The Game of Their Lives (2005)

Sick Product of a Sick System

Load of rubbish!!

best movie i've ever seen.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The victory of the United States over England in the first British participation in a football (soccer) World Cup, in Brazil 1950, has been a historical match which certainly deserves a good film. Unfortunately, "The game of their lives" is far from being good.It is full of clichés (the song, the narration, the military patriotic scene...) and prejudice (the black guy is the comic character, Haitians have exotic behavior and religion, Brazilians play samba and dance all the time...).Besides that, there are many historical inaccuracies that could be easily avoided (you can check them in Wikipedia). At least the team played with its proper jersey in the match.The screenplay is bad (too much obvious, exaggeratedly emotional) and the dialogs are poor and always fail in the goal of being funny. Indeed, the film is quite boring since its beginning and gets worse as you see its other problems.There are much better examples of an underdog story in a World Cup as a non-documentary movie. Serbian "Montevideo, God Bless You!", about Yugoslavian participation in the fist world tournament in Uruguay 1930, is very nice. "The Miracle of Bern", from Germany, about German first world triumph, against mythical Hungary in Switzerland 1954, is amazingly good, perfect! Though, in spite of the good real story, "The game of their lives" is disappointing.

This is such an awesome movie! I can't believe that it didn't get the PR it deserved, the only way I found it was being a fan of Gerard Butler and having two free tickets to an AMC theater so I perused the NOW Playing list and found ONE theater in Denver with it. The movie chronicles a then unheard of situation- An American Team playing in the World Cup. The cast is all-star including Patrick Stewart, John Rhys-Davies, Bill Smitrovich, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Louis Mandylor, Zachary Ty Brian, and of course the Phantom of the Opera Gerard Butler. America has always been considered the Youngster of the World Powers, but an American World Cup Competitor? Watch this kick butt band of rebels take on the European Pros with passion, determination, and heart. This movie is on par with such immortal classics as "Rudy," "The Air Up There," "The Replacements," and "Field of Dreams."

My brother played one of the coaches in the movie when it was being filmed in St. Louis. But it was never released out here in Seattle. I've been waiting for it to come out on DVD, but can't find any info on that. Last I heard, it was supposed to be released to DVD this past fall.I have read a lot of good reviews, and really enjoyed Hoosiers and Rudy, and I'm a soccer hound, so this is one of those movies I want my kids to see. The older brother on Home Improvement (Zachary Ty Bryan) was in this movie, and my brother (who played professional soccer) said he was a really good soccer player.Anyone have any release dates? I really want to see this movie!

This is a super story with lots of human interest and great soccer footage. Teaches you some sports history that most of the world is unfamiliar with -- especially since most Americans don't think the U.S. HAS a soccer history.The acting is pretty darn good. They strayed a bit from some of this historical truth -- the Haitian guy was NOT into voodoo. But I guess that's par for the course in any movie. Would have like to know what happened to everyone following the game that is highlighted in the movie, as well as which team won the 1950 World Cup. But it made me go out and do some research -- always a good thing.Definitely worth watching.