They think it's all over - I wish it was! (Mike Bassett: England Manager (DVD))

Member Name: angeelu

Product:	Mike Bassett: England Manager (DVD)
Date:	06/10/01 (156 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good cast, Not too long, Some funny jokes?

Disadvantages: Dull story, Predicatable, Acting isn't great

Mike Bassett : England Manager, has to be the worst film I have seen this year... to put it in one word it was boring!

I went to see this film for 2 main reasons - the first is that all the trailers I saw for the film made it look like it was going to be funny, and secondly it starred Ricky Tomlinson (of Royle Family Fame as Jim Royle) which I thought would make it even funnier, but I was unfortunately wrong.

The general story starts with Mike Bassett currently managing Norwich football club in the first division... With 3 matches left to play to qualify for the World Cup, the England Team have just lost their manager as he suffered a heart attack - this results in the FA having to find a new manager. Unable to get a manager from a foreign country (which was their first choice), and following refusals from all the other premier team managers, Mike Bassett is eventually offered the job, and of course, he takes it.

Training with the England team commences and despite losing their 3 qualifying matches they still make it to the World Cup through some mathematical miracle which obviously gives Mike and the team cause to celebrate.
So they head of to Brazil, where of course, they still keep losing... The press are abviously following Mike's every move as such an atrocious manager, and one particular journalist (played by Phil Jupitus) particular tries to wind Mike up. In addition to the lack of winning games, the press hounding, and the fact that particular members of the squad are quite a bit of trouble (won't give that away in case you watch the film), Mike's wife back in England is also starting to have doubts about their relationship following the number of eggs being thrown at her house and the bullying and tormenting their son is going through...

Anyway, to cut a long (dull?) story short, eventually the England team are about to take on Argentina... there's a happy ending, but I won't give too much away, be
cause again, you might want to see the film for yourself (though the ending is plainly obvious!).

The film is made to be documentary style, which does give it a bit of differentiation to other films out at the moment, and being about the England football team, the film is bound to have relevant success in England. The cast is good - quite a few familiar faces (Ricky Tomlinson, Bradley Walsh, Amanda Redman, Philip Jackson, Phill Jupitas). The acting... well personally I'd give that 2/5. The plot... I found it quite boring, so just 1/5 there. The film was 90 minutes long, which was plenty long enough and was rated 15 - in my opinion this could perhaps be lowered to a 12 as although there was some swearing and a few naked blokes, I don't think a 12 year old would be all that disturbed by it!

So, to conclude, although I found this film rather dull and boring, I have to admit that there were a lot of blokes in the audience (including my other half) who laughed quite a lot during the film, and said they enjoyed it... Perhaps this is more of a lads film? In my opinion it definitely is!

Thanks for reading,
Angeelu :o)

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