The Match (1999)

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

I enjoyed this movie thoroughly. The only reason I gave it an 8 is because of the "love" interests they try and through it. If they would have just kept the movie about football between the two pubs, then it would have made a 10 easy. Funny and entertaining, just can't get better than that. In all honesty, the football scene is way too short for the build up. I will admit, the ending is predictable. It starts off OK, builds, plateaus, then ends predictably. I recommend this to anyone who loves football. However it does not portray small town Scottish life very well. Rent it or buy it, you'll love it. I give it 3 thumbs up.

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')

Other people have used the words "light, romantic" for this film. I'd sooner use the words boring and predictable. If, as a child, you watched all those wonderful family sport movies(i.e., Little Giants, Angels in the Outfield), and then followed those up with the slightly more grown-up, but otherwise fairly similar sport dramedies (Mystery Alaska, for example) you get a pretty good idea of the sport movie formula, and they all share a trick or two. What makes some of them good is little twists of originality that sets them apart. Even storylines that allow the heroic team to lose set themselves apart in a show of realistic-ness and, well, modesty. I saw this movie for one reason: Richard E. Grant. And I rated it above a 1 for one reason: Richard E. Grant. He added a few comic moments to a story that otherwise I could practically recite without ever coming in contact with it before. There is nothing worse than sitting in front of a movie, and saying to yourself, "Oh, jeez, I know exactly what's going to happen next, and what's going to happen after that, and so on", and then finding that you are exactly right. We have the two competing pubs, the good guys, roughcut poor men with hearts of gold deep, deep down under their unwashed hides and snarly attitudes, versus the rich snobs of L'Bistro (now, come on guys, a Bistro in the middle of rural Scotland?), who are of course the champions of the last ninety nine years of matches between the two, and of course it all stems from a century old bet between the two original owners, who were once friends but then were torn apart over -- drumroll please -- a woman. Now, I'm not going to tell you how it ends, but hopefully you'll have the intellect to guess it without ever having to go out and waste your money on this piece. The one exception to the monotony was Grant, who comically portrays Gorgeous Gus, L'Bistro's villainous owner. His sideline antics were the only thing that made the final big match seen worth the time. Even so, it hardly passed. I give it a two, for Grant's sake. And, if he's what you're seeing it for, there are some much better ones you could rent. I highly recommend "Jack and Sarah"

Basically The Match is an hour and a half of your life you'll wish you'd spent chewing glass.It is based around a bet which has been placed in a small highland village. If Benny's Bar don't win 'the match', the 100th of it's kind, then the bar will be closed down. It is then up to a team of the locals to play against a far superior team encountering a whole heap of problems along the way, throw in a romance, a death to lift team spirit and Neil Morrissey saying 'p**s-off' an awful lot and that's the gist of it.This film is not funny. I would have had more fun at the dentist. Considering that it is set in the highlands and half the cast aren't scottish but instead choose to talk like characters from The Broons is painful enough for any viewer but with the only real interst taking place in the last 10 mins and a completely predictable story line, I was severely disappointed.The only redeeming feature of the film is that at times it is so bad it is laughable. Don't get me wrong, I set out determined to give it a chance but only got 10 mins in before I was crying with boredom.A lot of good talent was wasted in this film and Sam Fox-whoever let her loose on celluloid should be shot.