Goal II: Living the Dream

source: Goal II: Living the Dream

The first Goal was a great movie that i believe every soccer fan should view. With my first beliefs this one could not catch up I stand corrected. This movie had just as much passion and love for the game and the characters as the other one. Great camera work, amazing/thrilling moments throughout all to form a great movie experience!!! Definitely worth the watch for any soccer fan. All characters are well presented, and the movies plot is not lost throughout as young Munez finds his way as a real first class soccer player. My favorite part of this movie is that all of my favorite players are seen as players who play with Munez.

I found Goal 2 Living the Dream a wonderful sequel to Goal. A lot of people have bagged this film saying its too predictable. Hey its not an Oscar movie but hey do you want them all the time. Goal 2 follows Santiago Munez through the next phase of his soccer career and all the same characters are back. I loved it. The football scenes are awesome you really believe that the players are playing in front of huge crowds and the storyline is very engaging. There is a lot of drama in this movie so its not all football scenes but this to me add to the worth of this film. I enjoyed every minute of it and got goose bumps as it really immerses you in the life of a multi million dollar footballer. I cant wait to see Goal 3

I couldn't wait for this to hit the big screen but to my disappointment, the film wasn't half as good as i had expected. After seeing the first i didn't know when the super subs dream was going to end, but at Real Madrid with superstars surrounding him, i thought i was in for a treat. But to my mistake, the storyline steers of course of the footballing world bringing in a twist of family life which was almost suddenly killed of by the stress of which football brings. Every little boy's dream is to play football at a professional level but this film gives us an inside view as to what goes on off the pitch and in my opinion doesn't have enough twists in the story. As i'm a football fanatic i loved the matches they played and the 3-2 comeback in the Champions League final was amazing but so predictable. Overall i feel the film was a failure but is still worth watching so that there is some hope that GOAL III can impress and revive the disappointment of GOAL II. Daniel Bryson

First of all, I have to say I quite enjoyed the first Goal! movie. However, while Goal! II improves upon the great football action portrayed in the movie, all elements of storytelling are lost. In this installation, Santiago Munez gets his big break when Real Madrid are interested in signing him from Newcastle. His imminent decision to move to Spain causes problems which reflects the real life of a professional footballer, for example; Santiago plays in the same position as his friend, Gavin Harris, who has already settled in Real Madrid,and therefore his competitor is his own best buddy; the allures of coming with living in a posh celebrity lifestyle (there's probably about a hundred chicks included in the film, 90% of them quite hot); plus a few other points the movie brings out such as his family ties. In fact, the movie tries to focus more on the emotional and personal impacts so much they never really give any importance to winning football matches at all. Moreover, despite the attempts at focusing on the changes to his personal life and the emotional impact he must endure, the movie never follows throughly with these subplots and we're left out in the cold. You never get to see the tension build between Gavin and Santiago and even feels like a non-issue sometimes, yet it's conveniently resolved at the end. In fact, everything gets so conveniently solved or left to forget it's often irritating. The only real issue the movie tries to explore is between Santi and his fiancée, and that is left to be resolved in Goal 3 when he goes to the World Cup with Mexico. But despite these minuses, Goal II can probably be ranked amongst the best football films, not just because of a dire lack of them, but also because of its great football action and intelligent improvisation of real life situations. The swap-transfer of Santi is humorous, and the on-field action sequences are great. Yet the movie's strength can also lead to its downfall. While it contains a vast number of football stars, it gets irritating how none of them ever really talk, and how Beckham is somehow suddenly forced into the film as a major character without him ever needing to act or open his mouth. In fact, I got irritated at being forced to look at Beckham doing nothing so much I grew to dislike him more from this film alone than from anything else (personally, I admire his footballing skills and especially his professionalism). Overall, it's one big high-end product-placing film with sub-par acting, bad character development, horrible screenplay, but great football action and beautiful camera work at times. It could be a pretty good watch during the off-season, but if you're not a football fan, I highly recommend you to avoid it.

There were no redeeming qualities to this sequel. The plot was poor, the dialogue awful and what was up with Kuno's accent? In the first movie he's got really no accent, he's an American. But in the second...he's got this poor accent through out the movie. The dialogue and plot were bad...but the cinematography were even worse! The editing was choppy, the football boring...there was no tension in the film...and because of how annoying Santiago has become you don't even want to root for him either. Ironically, the best acting performances came from the footballers on the field, in the training scenes and in-game footage. And who thought it was a good idea to have Nick Cannon be in this movie? And as an Englishman? For shame. Acting: Terrible. Directing: Awful. Cinematography+ Editing: Atrocious Dialogue: Amateurish And who thought it was smart to have the characters go in and out of Spanish...then randomly go back into English?? If you're going to bring Santiago and his mother together...why not try and make it mean something? Worthless movie. Trust me, you should avoid this if at all possible. Move right to the third movie.

I watched the first instalment of this and after giving it a moderate rating (see my review) I thought this was worth a look. I never had too many expectations for this film, having been put firmly on my guard after the non-events of the first and watching it with this attitude made me appreciate and enjoy this film more. What can I say? Basically it just follows the pleasures, the trials and the tribulations involved in the life of a professional footballer who has just hit the big time after signing for the greatest football team in the world. The story was very predictable but the football action scenes were excellent with appearances from the likes of greats such as Beckham, Zidane, Raul and Ronaldinho. Reuteur Haur took a good part as the team coach. As usual the incredibly sexy and gorgeous Anna Friel provided the eye candy - especially in the bedroom scene wearing the frilly knickers (calm down lads), with parts of the film focusing on the emotional conflicts involved with her job as a nurse at Newcastle hospital. Nothing too major happens but the film is enjoyable if looked upon as an accurate insight into the life of a professional footballer. All in all I would say this film was slightly better than the first, simply for the glut of football stars on view and the amount of on-field action. This film should appeal to the football fan and non-fan alike - a good movie to snuggle down on the sofa with your beloved whilst cracking a few beers and the popcorn. Goal 3 perhaps? Who knows?

Not too many words can be wasted on this movie. I have already wasted 2 and half hours of my life. To cut the long story short, this movie is all about the high society indulgence and a really lame story. The story lifts off from where it's predecessor left - Munez gets into Real Madrid. He becomes a part of high society, thereby drifting off from his loved ones. He searches for his mother and his step brother plays, It's about how he ... heck, the story is so badly narrated that I am not able to write a summary. Danny Cannon did a way better job in Goal! The Dream Begins than Jaume Collet-Serra who has absolutely destroyed what could have been a potentially brilliant drama. That's it. I refuse to write anymore for this piece of garbage. Did I mention that I feel like kicking Jaume Collet-Serra into the goalpost.

There haven't been too many engaging football films. In fact, bar possibly Bend It Like Beckham and the recent art-house flick Zidane, there have been precisely nil. Goal 2 is unlikely to add to that total, it being an update of last year's Goal in which Kuno Becker's Santiago Munez is awarded the chance of a lifetime –albeit one that involves him abandoning his life in Los Angeles in order to pursue a career at Newcastle United rather than follow his father into the lawn maintenance business. He, you won't be too surprised to learn, succeeds – unlike pretty much every real player who has signed to the side in recent years. So successful has he been that, when he rejoin him in Goal 2 - Live The Dream, he has turned his back on the underachieving Geordies and been snapped up by Real Madrid, where he joins up with guest stars David Beckham and Raul. And while neither have been signed up for their acting skills, the same could also be said of Rutger 'The Hitcher' Hauer, who plays Real Madrid manager Rudi Van Der Merwe with all the conviction and passion of a man who's long abandoned hope of a career in Hollywood. On the strength of Goal 2, the chances of Becker having a long career are equally slight, sadly. Still, Becker's love interest Anna Friel is fine, while the action scenes are notably more impressive than anything in Escape To Victory, not to mention St James's Park.

Problem with these 2 'Goal' football (yes Americans, the game is called FOOTBALL not soccer) movies is that they are blatantly ridiculous. And actually -a fact that no one seems to notice- there's a lot of interesting stuff going on in football's REAL LIFE -more interesting i'd say, then in these stupid 'goal'-movies where the hero goes from illegal immigrant to winning the champions league in approximately one (1) year. That's the level of a ten year old, i'd say, or as i may add, of an American audience that for some strange reason never seems to get bored by the same old storyline in a different movie. Let's throw in a car chase, let's throw in some kissing, let's throw in some celebs ,oh yeah, some unrealistic football action before we forget, and ready is our SOCCER movie. That's the biggest problem. Hollywood doing a football film will NEVER NEVER work. Any volunteers from other sides of the world?