Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Although this is clearly low budget, and full of sports clichés (also a goofy plot idea), the music is wonderful, and I thoroughly enjoyed the show. The opening scene to "Hot Love" by T Rex hooked me, and the scene of the underdog team taking the field is also a delight. "FBI" by The Shadows is a musical treasure! I rarely notice music in movies, but this show had me checking all the musical credits at the end. The love story is more than a bit juvenile, but again it is well-intended, and it did not detract from the story. Sometimes coarse language will put off some viewers, but this is still a good-hearted movie. "Fever Pitch" is of course a better soccer show, and this will never be remade as a baseball show, but you do not need to be a soccer fan to enjoy it.

The Match is a light, airy, slice of life movie that's capped off by one of those clichéd "final game" type sports movie scenes.First, the good stuff. The Match generally has excellent cinematography, as Mick Davis takes full advantage of the endless rolling highlands that make up Scotland. There is always a feeling of freedom in shots of Inverdoune's people and buildings as the director gives his characters space to move through out the shot. Wullie floats through the countryside on his bike, children run free through the street, sunlight streams across wide lakes. There is nary a crowd to be seen outside.Benny's bar is also an excellent set piece. I don't even drink and I would love to hang out at Benny's. The director uses the lighting to create a great deal of warmth in the well-aged wooden walls and tables.There are also lot of quirky details in the movie that get a chuckle. The man and his son having to brake their bread van by jumping out and pushing against it. The "gets me hard" mechanic mentioning why he chose the violin. Buffalo attempting to ride a bike drunk. One detail in particular though, struck me as really above and beyond the usual attention to detail. One character in the film (I don't know his name) always wears an eye patch and in the Hawaiian party at the bar he replaces it with some combination of grapes and leaves on a strap. Absolutely hilarious and I commend Davis for going the extra mile there.Now for the bad stuff. Wullie and friends are a lovable bunch of losers. I never actually caught everyone's name other then Wullie, Buffalo, Rosemary, and Gorgeous George but the movie never forced me to learn about them as very little time is spent developing anyone outside of Wullie, and even he is still very much a piece of cardboard as a character. Wullie's mother is probably depressed but we're never really told anything else beyond that. Rosemary is going off to college or a new job but she mainly exists as a symbol of progress for Wullie, the only reason he'd have to leave his village. Gorgeous George is a generic rich scumbag complete with the usual villain clichés of misplaced vanity, snarling voice, and evil henchman in the form of Le Bistro's soccer team.The last act of the film is easily the worst part of the movie. Wullie's mother suddenly reveals he is the great grandson of Benny himself (eh?!) and he discovers Benny's long lost uniform upstairs in the attic. Fast Forward, time for the match. Wullie's team manages to arrive just before they would of had to forfeit, all in matching Benny's uniforms (where the heck did the other ones come from?!). The game starts. The Bistro team is obviously better prepared having witnessed them practicing through out the entire film and they jump out to an early 2-0 lead. No surprise there, we've only seen the Benny's team practice twice and they still look horrible. But UH OH, here comes an avalanche of sports movie clichés. Wullie's mother gets off her duff and arrives with words of encouragement (Unexpected-Love-From-A-Formerly-Cold-Parent). Wullie shouts really loudly and gives THE SPEECH (+100-To-Sports-Talent-Pep-Talk). The formerly indifferent former soccer pro joins Wullie's Team (Reluctant-Ringer-Finally-Decides-To-Join). Wullie's team scores two quick goals and miraculously outplays Bistro. The Bistro captain takes out former soccer pro's knee (Dirty-Move-Takes-Out-The-Star) and it's up to Wullie to take the penalty kick with 15 seconds left (A-Chance-For-Redemption). Wullie draws upon the nearly random memory of his brother falling to his death while they were kids, and manages to score.Yay.Ironically the underdog sports team in this movie has more to play for then nearly any sports team I've seen. If they lose, their bar gets shut down and demolished by Gorgeous George. As it's set up in the film, that would largely mean the end of any kind of life for the pup-goers and I truly believed that. These people NEED that bar. It's too bad they had to cheapen the game so much by drowning it in clichés and squeezing it into the last 10 minutes of the movie.Overall, a feel-good type movie that had potential to be a lot more.

This is a fantastic film set in a fictional location in the Scottish Highlands. Basically it is about two pub teams and a historic rivalry based on a game of football. Benny's bar are really the "good guys", but are crap at football. L'Bistro is the posh upper class pub, but they are the "bad guys". The teams have played 99 games in a row, and if they loose the 100th game, they also loose the pub, and their livelihood. This film does have a lot of bad write ups, but I think it is a brilliant film. Simple, yes. Predictable, yes. But still a great film. The only drawback is few of the cast are actually Scottish, and we have to listen to their painfully poor Scottish accents.

Scottish milkman Wuille's life is in a bit of turmoil. His sweetheart has returned to the village and his local pub is at risk from being shut down as a result of a century old bet with another pub to win a football match. With his pub's group of thugs seemingly having no chance Wuille decides to move his life on by making his feelings clear to Shelia and coaching his team to victory.With the success of The Full Monty, everyone wanted to make a British comedy that would cost little but hit big. The Match is one of those attempted clones but it doesn't quite work as well as it could do. The plot is promising but little of it carries through. The subplots and history behind the main characters isn't really followed – for example the loss of Wuille's brother or the relationship with Shelia, neither are fully explored.The comedy is of the amusing but not hilarious type with some good characters but nothing to write home about. There are no jokes that really stand out and rather the film has a general air of being bemused rather than funny. It all makes for a watchable film that will quickly fade from your memory. The use of music makes it feel like every other Brit comedy of recent memory, the tunes of nice but it just sticking to the formula and shows no real evidence of invention.The cast are OK but don't really stand out, they are all pretty average. Beesley is an average lead but love interest Blair does little but look pretty (although she does do it well!). Grant is camp and OTT but is good value. The cast of the two pubs are easily drawn comedy characters but none of the cameos really work. Sam Fox is nice to look at but does nothing, Shearer is simply pointless, Ian Holm is miscast but Brosnan is reasonable as he appears to be mocking his involvement a little!It doesn't really work but the gentle air of predictable amusement is just enough to make this light enough to pass 90 minutes. Just don't expect anything more than that – there is a reason why this was not a global sleeper hit.