Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

An absolute waste of money

A Disappointing Continuation

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Believe it or not, this story is partly based (and I think very loosely) on the real, early, life of actress Elisabeth Shue, who grew up playing soccer with boys. She herself also plays a role in this movie. There are actually a whole lot of more of her family members involved with this movie in one way or another, so you can really call this a Shue movie. Nothing wrong with that of course but it makes it just a bit all the more weird that the message at the end of the movie claims that female soccer in America was not accepted and didn't even exists, till there was Gracie, or should I say Lizzy Shue. But I don't hold this against the movie. The movie already has enough problems on its own as it is.It's not a bad movie but I still really had tons of problems with it. First one is really its story. All of the drama and emotions feel very forced in and manipulative but even worse is that it's so incredibly formulaic and predictable. So, it's a movie about a girl who tries to make it to the boys soccer team at school...jeez, you think she will make it or not? But everything else that happens in between is also very predictable. It's really a movie by the numbers, which is not necessarily a bad thing if it got done right. And yes, the movie still does a lot of things right but its story and storytelling really prevent this movie from standing out in any way.One of the things I also really didn't liked about the story was that it never felt realistic in any way. It was crazy how everybody was against Gracie playing soccer and saying silly stuff like 'grils can't play' or 'she is not good or though enough for the game'. But it was even more silly how all of the characters kept on switching back and forth with their opinions. The one moment someone was being really against the idea, while the other he or she is suddenly being very supportive and all for it. But this happens with no apparent reason, which was really annoying to be honest.I must say it also didn't helped the movie very much that the acting in this movie was really below par.The story can perhaps be understand and appreciated better if you understand that this movie was supposed to be set in the '70's, when girls at schools just had less choice on what to do with their lives and what sports to pick. I say this, because it really isn't apparent at all within this movie that it was supposed to be set in the '70's. All you basically see are some old cars but there is very little else to indicate that the story is supposed to be set in the '70's. So bad film-making in that regard, though this can also be put on its low budget of course.But a more positive thing about this movie is the way the soccer matches are being portrayed. What I liked was that it showed the game as the tough and hard game that it can be and you also don't necessarily have to understand the rules of the game to watch this film. It doesn't ever get into any technical details or tactics, which makes this movie accessible to watch for basically everybody.You will perhaps like this movie better if you're a young girl with dreams but to me this movie was just being very average and I think I'm still being very kind to rate this movie still as 'highly' as I do because the more I think about this movie, the less I'm starting to like it.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

A family tragedy involving sports. That has been done before, however I think better than this work. Very much different from "Death Sentence", although it does have in common the gifted child dying and the less gifted one living. It is also not anything like "Mean Green", except it revolves around soccer.Gracie wants to play soccer, but her father prefers not to after the death of the other child. However, he warms up to the idea and fights with her to make her dream come true. They both suffer discrimination for this event and the movie revolves around that.A family that can't fully cope and a father who invested it all in one child to have to support the other. Been there, done that. But the soccer angle was original. But yet it really fails to get the audience into the film. I was bored throughout most of this film.Overall, not very good. "D"

I booked this film for my local theater during a soccer tournament weekend. Having had good results in the past with Bend it Like Beckham and Goal!, I expected good crowds for what I thought was going to be a pretty good movie. This was not the case. This is more a coming of age film than a sports film and is definitely not appropriate for pre-teens. I was embarrassed to sit in the audience with my 11 year old daughter and watch scenes of teen sex in autos and alleyways. Even though nothing was actually shown, the suggestive scenes were graphic enough to prompt me to have a conversation with my daughter about proper dating behavior.Aside from my concerns about the appropriateness of the film for pre-teens, the characters were underdeveloped (e.g. no mention or development of the Dad's former soccer star status), there were continuity errors, such as using the word "suck" in an era when it was not used, and at least one half of the film was a complete downer. So much more could have been done with this story that should have felt triumphant, but didn't.

I really wanted to give this movie a fair shake since Schroder was from Valparaiso, Indiana (my home town). But, alas, I can't. Although there are moments when I feel the film began to carry a decent storyline but all too often it drags into generic scenes and dry dialog. One big problem was the father character that continually seemed lackluster and unreal. I felt the plot and storyline were both cellophane thin and I was bored time after time with uninteresting characters. This, to me, was a, "how to not make a sports movie." I suppose credit should be given for something and with that I'll compliment the credits at the end of this mediocre film for giving it a home spun touch that was worth a nickle. Anyone who rates this higher than a 4 has got to be friend or family. It just doesn't fill the bill as a true and genuine "sports flick."