Goal III (2009)

Directed by: Andrew Morahan | 92 minutes | drama, romance, sports | Actors: JJ Feild, Leo Gregory, Kuno Becker, Nick Moran, Kasia Smutniak, Anya Lahiri, Tamer Hassan, Craig Heaney, Jack McBride, Christopher Fairbank, Mike Elliot, Antonia Bernath, Gary Lewis, Ori Pfeffer, John Salthouse, Tereza Srbova, Melissa White, Margo Stilley, Sam Cunningham, Erin Lister, David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ruud van Nistelrooy

‘Escape to Victory’ was pretty much the last amusing football movie. And that was already in prehistoric times. Even the ‘Goal’ trilogy can’t change that. The first two parts achieved an acceptable level of quality. The Rocky-like story was not really original, but the amusing main character Santiago Munez could still charm us. With this last episode, however, the makers are seriously missing the point. ‘Goal III’ is therefore nothing less than an annoying and ridiculous final piece.

Santiago Munez is getting ready to compete with Mexico in the World Cup in Germany. Unfortunately, a car accident abruptly decides otherwise. Munez is injured and allowed to forget his dream. As a result, the figure of Munez disappears into the background. A rather strange choice by the creators to degrade the pivot of your story. The focus shifts to two friends of Munez: Liam Adams and Charlie Braithwaite. These two loose balls do everything they can to comply with the stereotypical behavior of football players. Off the pitch, the two Brits are solely concerned with parties, women and ostentation. Liam, in particular, clearly has an alcohol problem. Despite their misadventures, Adams and Braithwaite have been selected for the national team. Their goal is to win the World Cup.

With the World Cup in the background, a number of unanimated entanglements arise that are impossible to tie up. The Implausibles are delivered in bulk and also served with some serious cheesiness. The tears and unintentionally hilarious sentimental fragments clatter from the screen. It seems that ‘Goal III’ is aimed exclusively at a female audience. That’s a bad idea when the main topic is football. Those football scenes aren’t convincing at all. The actors move in front of a blue screen and the result looks abominably bad.

‘Goal III’ is a crap film that deserves the red card