There's Only One Jimmy Grimble (DVD)

...the rest is cruising! "There's Only One Jimmy Grimble" - the title does the film absolutely no favours. A tedious and cumbersome label for what is in fact a lively and captivating modern fairytale. Jimmy Grimble is miserable. He's bullied, cowed and about to lose his mother to a pretentious Harley-riding martial-arts fake. The one thing Jimmy lives for is football. Only problem is that the fancy footwork which he kicks up around the back streets of Manchester where he lives is lost the minute he knows anyone else is watching. That is until he meets an old streetlady who gives him her magic boots........ Living in Manchester ...  Read the complete review

Every so often British movies are released in different ways. Some are released with a bang, whereas others only appear with a whimper. ‘There’s Only One Jimmy Grimble’ falls into the latter category, which is a shame, as there are worse films on release at the moment. It stars Lewis McKenzie as the eponymous hero, a boy who has a difficult life at school and at home, due to his mother’s numerous boyfriends, but who takes solace in football. However, he is just not very good. Still, when a homeless woman gives him a pair of magic boots, his luck changes and he becomes the star of the football team, to the delight of its coach, played by ...  Read the complete review

MANN-CHIS-TAH!!! If you've ever spent any time at all there you'll understand exactly what the title means - to be a Man City fan - a simple, innocent, masochistic, naive Blue - in a City like that, where all the brains get theirselves down to Old Trafford, where the prawn sucking, bloated, arrogant, smug bastard Big Nobs turn out, is to know true Purgatory - ever the dog end, left over eating underdogs among their affluent richer relations. A City fan learns to adopt that pitiful hang dog expression very early in life, born to expect little and receive even less - they may be downtrodden and dismal losers, but they dream of glory, of one day ...  Read the complete review

Set in a very grim version of Manchester this is a modern day fairy tale involving a young Manchester City supporter ( Jimmy Grimble ) and the problems he faces at home and at school. At school he is bullied by a hard core of Manchester United followers, whilst at home he has to cope with his mothers taste in boyfriends. He befriends an elderly bag lady, and she gives him some old and battered football boots that she claims to have magic powers. Jimmy wears the boots and eventually becomes a hero in the Manchester Schools Football Knockout Cup. Wearing the boots give him great confidence and he plays fantastic football. He also manages to win over the ...  Read the complete review

Ever seen a movie that is so 'feel-good', or corny and stupid, that it makes you feel physically sick? Well I did, There's Only One Jimmy Grimble tries to do what British film makers have been trying to do well for the last 40 years, a make a football movie. But this isn't just a football movie, it's about Jimmy the 15 year old Manchester bullied kid who wants to be a footballer, and, you guessed it, becomes one. The slow motion going to kick a football with patriotic music in the background really did have me reaching for the sick bag, fortunately the old lady next to me was too busy sleeping to realise I'd give her a present to take ...  Read the complete review