Soccer is without any doubt the most popular sport in Europe. The supporters can be very fanatic and for some every excuse is good enough to spend a lot of money on their favorite team. But it's also in this stadiums that people from all classes come together and not everybody is able to buy a ticket week after week because they are too poor. Their love for a soccer club can sometimes get out of hand and that's where this movie has found its inspiration.
It tells the story of two young boys who live in a rough neighborhood of the industrial city of Newcastle and who want to buy season tickets for their local football team Newcastle United. But because they don't have any money they will have to try anything to find some. They try to find some scrap metal which they can sell, but will also steal, try to rob a bank and do many other illegal stuff. But their actions don't go by unnoticed and soon they are caught by the justice department. Their dream of going to the football that season is over or isn't it...
The movie makers in the UK seem to prefer socially realistic dramas over other genres of movies (although costume dramas are popular as well) and I must say that I can appreciate that. It's that feeling of realism that keeps me interested time after time and when they add some very fine humor to it like they have done in this movie, I only like it more. There are people who will say that it is hard to like little criminals like the boys in this movie, but personally I don't have any problem with it. Fact is that there are indeed still a lot of impoverished areas in the industrial cities and why should these areas or the people that live there not be shown in a movie? Is it because that only disrupts some people's image of a perfect society? I don't know, but it isn't so that the movie glorifies the actions of the boys. It actually gives some biting social commentary on the broken families where they come from, the poverty which they live in,...
Even though I'm not a soccer fan I really had a good time watching this movie. That's why I would like to say that, even when you hate the game, you can still like the movie. Watch it for the biting criticism, the fine humor, the good acting by the boys,... and you'll notice that this movie is underrated by many. I give this movie a 7.5/10.
