As well as Play It Again, Sam, it also sounds similarish in premise to Scully, the mid-80s, Alan Bleasdale-scripted series about a young kid whose only dream is to play for Liverpool. Kenny Dalglish appears in it, mostly as a fantasy version of himself, offering advice, guidance etc. Not sure if you guys are familiar with it...
I saw it last night and whilst Champions League isn't mentioned by name, part of the plot is set against the backdrop of the home leg against Barcelona last year.
It is fucking ace. Sweet, funny, touching, heart wrenching, and all this featuring Cantona and lots of guys in FCUM shirts. What more could you want?
I have a bit of a professional interest in Loach (or Low-atch, as they call him in Spain) and was intrigued to hear he promoted this on Soccer a.m. the other week (good on him).
Sat next to a hyperactive Freddie Starr, apparently, and responded to the request to have a word with Eric and get him on sometime, Ken said he would definitely come if he asked him, but he wouldn't ask him unless Soccer a.m. had Bath City fans on in return.
Given how fondly anyone who saw it remembers the Brian Glover PE teacher sequence in 'Kes', this has the possibility to bring Loach back nearer the mainstream audience (that British cinema distribution quirks and censorship habits have partly denied him) and be a real big hit.
I saw it last night and whilst Champions League isn't mentioned by name, part of the plot is set against the backdrop of the home leg against Barcelona last year.
It is fucking ace. Sweet, funny, touching, heart wrenching, and all this featuring Cantona and lots of guys in FCUM shirts. What more could you want?
Eric in an FC United shirt? But that's the thing about Eric. He always leaves you wanting more.
Fucking hell. I think I'd cry. The only time I met him I let loose an eloquent monologue thanking him for everything he did for me, including a clever parody of the Albert Camus line about morality and obligation, and how everything I had learned about it was due to Eric Cantona.
Well, at least I thought I said all that, apparently what I actually said was "Fucking hell. Eric Cantona. Fuck." Which got the point across I suppose.
My mate, a Villa fan, as telling me about the time his Dad took him to The Cliff, United's old training ground, to get Eric's autograph.
They wwaited for an hour after training, but Eric hadn't appeared, so my mate's Dad knocked on a door and asked if Eric'd be about any time soon. The security person went to check and said sorry, but Eric had been held up in some media related guff, and would be out in any minute. They waited another half an hour before giving up and heading back to the car.
As they sat in the car, getting ready to leave, there was a knock on the window. Eric had run across the car park, apologised for being tardy and keeping them waiting, and asked if they'd like an autograph and/or photo.
Cantona is the second coming of Jesus Christ himself, we just haven't realised it yet. I still have a copy of UWS where he scribbled his name on the front. I have it mounted inside a perspex case alongside my Corinthian Pro Stars 1999 Treble Winners box (in mint condition, sealed and autographed by Jaap Stam).
My Mum used to think I was gay and would regularly become concerned over my man-love for the mercurial maverick.
Given my current location, I doubt I will be able to see this film at the cinema as they only like Hollywood blockbusters and Jamaican gangster films here...buts its defo a DVD purchase. I wouldn't mind betting that 'Looking For Eric' will become my favourite movie of all time...even if its crap (which it won't be, obviously).
So anyone else seen it yet then? SR thoroughly disliked it, I enjoyed it. Are those who've watched it going to talk about it on this thread or my Jonathan Ross one? I'm just making people aware of their options.
It's very good indeed. Steve Evets is terrific and the acting is generally of a high standard - I'm normally allergic to shouty scenes with British people, but this is top notch. Not having seen a Loach film for years, I'd forgotten that when he's on form he's very fine.
The first 70 minutes are fairly gritty and realistic, but the ending is ludicrous in a good way, a Children's Film Foundation-style triumph of the forces of good.
Cantona's good enough (and appears in the credits as "lui-meme") and there are some good clips of him in action, though sadly not the one where he gave a wanker the boot.
I thought it was brilliant. The trick about the accident at the beginning was an excellent hook, the acting superb, some of the Loachisms were tiresome, but not as tiresome as he can be (compare Land and Freedom). The ending was superb, the Cantona self-parody was excellent "...it was a pass", "I am not a man, I am Cantona"
Though not strictly just about football, it is the best football related film I can remember.
Put me down as a fan too although I thought the film was weakest whenever Cantona was onscreen.
edit: Best put spoilers around this:
**********************Spoilers*******************
Out of interest, were FC United comfortable with the images of tooled-up football fans in organised coaches. I know that no reasonable person would take the sequence as glamourising hooliganism but I would think that any connection between the working class fandom of FC United and violence would want to be avoided.
Comment