Other people have used the words "light, romantic" for this film. I'd sooner use the words boring and predictable. If, as a child, you watched all those wonderful family sport movies(i.e., Little Giants, Angels in the Outfield), and then followed those up with the slightly more grown-up, but otherwise fairly similar sport dramedies (Mystery Alaska, for example) you get a pretty good idea of the sport movie formula, and they all share a trick or two. What makes some of them good is little twists of originality that sets them apart. Even storylines that allow the heroic team to lose set themselves apart in a show of realistic-ness and, well, modesty. I saw this movie for one reason: Richard E. Grant. And I rated it above a 1 for one reason: Richard E. Grant. He added a few comic moments to a story that otherwise I could practically recite without ever coming in contact with it before. There is nothing worse than sitting in front of a movie, and saying to yourself, "Oh, jeez, I know exactly what's going to happen next, and what's going to happen after that, and so on", and then finding that you are exactly right. We have the two competing pubs, the good guys, roughcut poor men with hearts of gold deep, deep down under their unwashed hides and snarly attitudes, versus the rich snobs of L'Bistro (now, come on guys, a Bistro in the middle of rural Scotland?), who are of course the champions of the last ninety nine years of matches between the two, and of course it all stems from a century old bet between the two original owners, who were once friends but then were torn apart over -- drumroll please -- a woman. Now, I'm not going to tell you how it ends, but hopefully you'll have the intellect to guess it without ever having to go out and waste your money on this piece. The one exception to the monotony was Grant, who comically portrays Gorgeous Gus, L'Bistro's villainous owner. His sideline antics were the only thing that made the final big match seen worth the time. Even so, it hardly passed. I give it a two, for Grant's sake. And, if he's what you're seeing it for, there are some much better ones you could rent. I highly recommend "Jack and Sarah"
