In this sports drama, an aspiring British football player (Sean Bean) struggles against intense pressure from his mates at the pub and his adoring wife while being forced to decide if his passions lie on the pitch or in his personal life. In addition to Bean, the film also features Pete Postlethwaite and Emily Lloyd.
Cast:
Sean Bean, Emily Lloyd, Pete Postlethwaite, Craig Kelly (II), John McEnery
Special Features:
1.77 Wide Screen
16:9 Wide Screen
DVD 5
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 2.0 English
Dolby Digital 2.0
English
Escape to Victory (110 mins)
1981
A group of P.O.W.s at a German prison camp agree to compete against Nazi soccer players in this World War II drama set in 1943 Occupied Europe. German Major Karl von Steiner, who played soccer professionally before the war, comes up with the idea. When his superior officers find out about the competition, they pit the Allies against Germany's best team--but they don't realize that the P.O.W.s plan to use the upcoming big game as a means of escaping. The Allied team includes John Colby, a British officer who also played soccer before the war, and Robert Hatch, an American soldier who cares far more about gaining his freedom than the game itself. When the P.O.W.s realize they have a good shot at beating the Nazi team in front of a huge crowd, they must decide what's more important: finishing the match or getting out alive.
Cast:
Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, Pele
Those Glory, Glory Days (90 mins)
1984
Bringing the legend of the first British football team to life, this movie captures the passion and excitement of the first championship team of the 20th century. The heart and soul of the players who formed this history-making team are remembered through the eyes of some of their biggest fans.
Cast:
Zoë Nathenson, Sara Sugarman, Cathy Murphy, Liz Campion
There’s Only One Jimmy Grimble (102 mins)
2000
This football fairy tale follows the life of young Jimmy Grimble (Lewis McKenzie), a shy Manchester school boy. When an old woman (Jane Lapotaire) rescues Jimmy from being roughed up by bullies, she gives him a pair of boots that belonged to a City legend. Soon Jimmy's on his way to becoming a top player. The charming film also features Robert Carlyle, Ray Winstone, and Gina McKee.
Cast:
Lewis McKenzie, Jane Lapotaire, Gina McKee, Ben Miller (II), Wayne Galtrey
Special Features:
English
Region 2
The Match (95 mins)
1999
A romantic comedy which follows Wullie Smith and his love for Rosemary Bailey. To win her over he must help a team of misfits win their yearly football match against an opposing pub team.
Cast:
Max Beesley, Isla Blair, James Cosmo, Laura Fraser (II), Richard E. Grant
Special Features:
1.85 Anamorphic Wide Screen
DVD 5
French\Spanish
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English\Dolby Digital Surround French Spanish
Dolby Digital 5.1
Dolby Digital Surround
Miracle Match (101 mins) 2005
In the spirit of REMEMBER THE TITANS MIRACLE and THE ROOKIE THE MIRACLE MATCH is the incredible story about the men behind one of the all-time greatest upsets in sports history. Two weeks before the 1950 World Cup a ragtag group of recreational soccer players from St. Louis and New York were chosen to represent the USA in Brazil. Consumed with conflicts personal cultural and playing styles they had mere days to become a team. And then they had to play the British the best team in the world. Inspired by a newfound belief in the team their passion and talent turned into pure magic on the field and the unthinkable happened. Filled with heart-stopping action and featuring Patrick Stewart this triumphant story is a rousing celebration of the human spirit love of the sport and pride of country
Cast:
Gerard Butler, Wes Bentley, Jay Rodan, Gavin Rossdale, Costas Mandylor
The Big Green (100 mins) 1995
A bunch of small town kids, with the help of their out of shape sheriff, form a soccer team and make it all the way to the championships.
Cast:
Steve Guttenberg, Olivia d'Abo, Jay O. Sanders, John Terry, Chauncey Leopardi
Switching Goals (85 mins) 1999
A bunch of small town kids, with the help of their out of shape sheriff, form a soccer team and make it all the way to the championships.
Cast:
Mary-Kate Olsen, Ashley Olsen, Eric Lutes, Kathryn Greenwood, Robert Clark (II)
Soccer Dog: The Movie (98 mins) 1998
If you can accept the premise of a soccer-crazy town deep in this country's heartland--complete with a game-fixing Mafioso dad, then you can buy this story of a talented dog who brings a boy and his adoptive father together and helps the team win the championship. Kids in the 6-10 range will enjoy the comeuppances received by a kid bully, maniacal dog catcher, drill sergeant coach, and buffoon coach, even as adults may wince at the stereotypes
Cast:
James Marshall, Olivia d'Abo, Jeremy Foley, Sam McMurray, Burton Gilliam
Soccer Dog: European Cup (88 mins) 2004
When an unexpected accident leaves a young boy motherless he must travel from America to live with his estranged father in Scotland. There he finds himself teaming up with a scientifically enhanced soccer-playing dog that has escaped from the evil scientists who designed him for more nefarious means. Father son and the incredible soccer dog all band together to bring victory and pride to the downtrodden town.
Cast:
Nick Moran, Jake Thomas, Lori Heuring, Scott Cleverdon, Orson Bean
The 2006 FIFA World Cup Film: The Grand Finale (112 mins) 2007
Narrated by Pierce Brosnan, this is the official (FIFA sanctioned) World Cup documentary (Germany 2006) soccer. A must-have for all FIFA World Cup soccer fans!... The documentary provides an overview of all the tournament's action and drama including never-before-seen footage shot on proprietary 35mm cameras during the Quarter finals up through the Final itself. The film also includes behind-the-scenes, off-the-field footage of the teams and fans.
Loaded with exclusive interviews with key FIFA World Cup(R) players: Fabio Cannavaro, Hidetoshi Nakata, Jens Lehmann, Michael Ballack, Didier Drogba and Horacio Elizondo (Referee of the Final);, Interviews
Cast:
Pierce Brosnan
FIFA Fever - Best Of the World Cup (195 mins) 2006
A definitive profile of World Cup action in two parts. Includes footballing action from the greatest players and teams of each generation. A comprehensive look at the action, teams and players from the history of the World Cup. Also features greatest goals, saves, bloopers and fouls.
The Best of FIFA Fever: Greatest Moments in FIFA World Cup History (91 mins) 2006
MacKinac Media's home video release The Greatest Moments in World Cup History: FIFA Fever caters to rabid soccer fans around the globe. The program compiles highlights from over seventy-five years of World Cup soccer matches, held every four years and hosted by FIFA, the Federation Internationale de Football Association. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
The History Of The World Cup (59 mins) 2004
Although FIFA was formed in 1904, it was not until 1930 that the first World Cup tournament was played. Since then the competition has become the greatest sporting spectacle in the world. Here is the history of the tournament, together with highlights from all the greatest games.
ADDED FEATURES:
Includes all results for the World Cup Finals tournaments 1930-2002.
Shaolin Soccer (113 mins) 2001
Computer generated special effects have seldom been so giddy as in Shaolin Soccer, a gleeful fusion of kung fu and a classic Bad News Bears sports story. A former soccer star--whose "golden leg" was broken by a hired mob--assembles a team of former students of Shaolin martial arts, whose assorted skills (indicated by their nicknames, like Mighty Steel Leg and Iron Head) lend themselves to the swift interplay of the world's most popular game. Along the way, the team's leader (Hong Kong comic superstar Stephen Chow) meets a sticky bun baker (Vicki Zhao) whose kung fu is the equal of any of his teammates. Shaolin Soccer is supremely silly--in the final match, their opponents are called Team Evil--but that's part of the fun. American movies rarely achieve this perfect balance of the absurd and the sincere
Cast:
Stephen Chow, Vicki Zhao, Man Tai Ng
Shaolin Family Soccer (92 mins) 2007
Qiao Ko Fung and Lai Mei Ka are a successful couple in Tong Kwun whose separation requires a new nanny to look after their troublesome son Qiao Pak Go whose misbehavior discourages a babysitter at any price. Hearing of the situation the boy's grandfather interviews for the new position... as a woman. Hilarity and high-flying action ensue in the outrageous comedy proving that the family that kicks together stays together!
Cast:
Chan Kai Tai, Sui Ming Kei
Kung Fu Hustle (95 mins) 2005
Stephen Chow's follow-up to SHAOLIN SOCCER ups the over-the-top action quotient by about three zillion percent. The story is set in 1930s Hong Kong, with Chow as a shaggy-haired, would-be bad guy named Sing, who gets caught up in the middle of a war between the top-hat-wearing Axe gang and the hard scrabble inhabitants of Pig Sty Alley. Chow who wrote, produced, and directed doesn't step in as the star here for quite a while, letting the comic duties fly in a myriad of directions: a landlady in curlers (Yuen Qiu) has a yell that can flatten buildings; people get kicked across courtyards and through walls; musician assassins whip ghost sabres from lyre strings, and a mental patient in pink flip-flops named 'the Beast' (Leung Siu Lung) catches bullets in his fingers. Buoyed by SOCCER's box office success, HUSTLE uses bigger production values and a dizzying amount of CGI-enhanced martial arts (imagine Bruce Lee vs. Bugs Bunny in THE MATRIX). It's full of references to other films and filmmakers, revering spaghetti westerns and '70s Shaw brothers movies a la Tarantino's KILL BILL (fight choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping worked on both films). It also pays sly homage to the works of Wong Kar Wai, D.W. Griffith, Sam Raimi, Jean-Luc Godard, Stanley Kubrick, and Akira Kurosawa. Raymond Wong's inspired score matches each cinematic reference with the appropriate cue as the camera circles and swoops around the sprawling sets. This is a real treat, more than a great action film or comedy, it's a great film period, and one that set box office records in the East.
Cast:
Stephen Chow
Once in a Lifetime (95 mins) 2006
In the 1970s the New York Cosmos were a superstar soccer team that attracted thousands of fans to their games, almost raising the sport to the level of football and baseball in America. ONCE IN A LIFETIME charts the Cosmos' spectacular rise and fall. In the 1970s, a group of high-profile businessmen, led by Warner Bros. head Steve Ross and Atlantic Records gurus Ahmet and Nehui Ertegun, decided to bring the world's most popular international sport, soccer, to the United States in a big way. So they gathered their resources, called in favours, and bought the New York Cosmos, part of a fledgling, somewhat pathetic new league. Within a few years they had collected many of the game's greatest players, creating a nearly unstoppable team that were as successful on the field as they were in the gossip pages and such clubs as Studio 54--until their egos got in the way. Paul Crowder and John Dower tell this fascinating story of greed, power, and fame in an entertaining documentary. Crowder and Dower mix in terrific archival footage of the Cosmos with 1970s-era Manhattan and new interviews with many of the primary characters, including Cosmos stars Giorgio Chinaglia (cast as the villain), Carlos Alberto, Franz Beckenbauer, Shep Messing (who talks about posing naked for a women's magazine), soccer lover Henry Kissinger, broadcasters Marv Albert and Paul Gardner, Rodney Marsh, journalist David Hirshey, and many others. Interestingly, Pelé, the man whose multimillion-dollar signing started it all, declined to participate in the project, although he's well represented in the movie. From the patchy field at Randalls Island to packed houses at Giants stadium, ONCE IN A LIFETIME--narrated by Matt Dillon (CRASH)--details the rise and fall of the mighty Cosmos, set to a great 1970s soundtrack that includes songs from Kool and the Gang, Steely Dan, Junior Walker, Donna Summer, the Commodores, and the Main Ingredient, helping make the film a fabulous document of a crazy time.
Mike Bassett: England Manager (98 mins) 2001
Popular British actor, Ricky Tomlinson, stars in this lighthearted football-themed comedy as the titular Mike Bassett, a lowly football manager who is surprisingly handed the job as manager of the English national team. The film follows the team's hapless exploits as they set out to win the World Cup in Brazil. After a losing streak and an embarrassing drunken incident, the manager has to rally his team and his country behind him.
Cast:
Ricky Tomlinson, Bradley Walsh (II), Amanda Redman, Philip Jackson (II), Phill Jupitus
Merry Christmas (Joyeux Noel) (116 mins) 2005
The Western Front, December 1914. War is raging and heavy casualties have been sustained to both sides. A bloody battle of one of the most savage wars, but out of the chaos and slaughter, a miracle takes form; on Christmas Day, the soldiers of both sides meet in No Man's Land and celebrate festivities with a game of football.
Cast:
Gary Lewis, Diane Kruger, Daniel Bruhl, Benno Furmann, Guillaume Canet
Mean Machine (99 mins) 2001
In this remake of THE LONGEST YARD, Robert Aldrich's 1974 Burt Reynolds prison tale concerning inmates who organize themselves into a football team and compete against the guards, British director Barry Skolnick pulls together a ruthlessly funny cast and changes the resident sport to soccer. The leader of the prisoners, played by Vinnie Jones (LOCK, STOCK, AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS), is a former soccer star who is asked by the warden to coach a team of prison guards. Instead, he offers to put together a team of inmates, who will be able to scrimmage with the guards' team.
Cast:
Vinnie Jones, David Kelly, David Hemmings, Ralph Brown, Vas Blackwood, Danny Dyer, Jason Statham
