User Reviews

Firstly I would like to say that I have given this film a 7 out of 10 due to its try hard effort.

The film itself is quite stunning, the effects that they use to integrate Santiago Munez and Gavin Harris into the Real Madrid team would almost have you thinking that they were receiving passes from Raul and Zidane. Some of the sequences where the players have the ball at their feet though are totally un-realistic. I mean for example at certain times Santiago pulls off runs and tricks that just wouldn't happen in football. After around 3 step overs and a Cruyff turn followed by dribbling around two more defenders would just result in you being hacked to the ground. They seem to have made Santiago invincible with the ball at his feet, if they were to ask Cristiano Ronaldo what happens when he runs at defenders he would tell you that 99% of the time it would result in him being kicked! The film has an interesting storyline though, which is cleverly left with a lot of questions to be answered in the third film. A surprising twist at the end before the Champions League final certainly caught me out. However the story lines seemed to get tangled up and at times seemed a bit silly. Santiago seems to have too much going on too quickly, and you only have to look at the likes of Paul Gascoigne, Sol Campbell and even David Beckham, to realise that with all of the things going on off the field does not mean you are going to be scoring goals from 30 yards every match. Gavin Harris for me in this film has a far better storyline than that of Santiago. The football side of things in terms of the film got too predictable very quickly. I mean I don't want to spoil the film but at times I was left sat watching thinking, OK that was so blatantly obvious that it was going to happen it was unrealistic. The Champions League final will be a prime example of this.

I think that the acting in this film though was all around better in the sequel than the original. I think that Kuno Becker does a good job again as Santiago, making sure that the audience feel what is going on in his head is portrayed on the screen. Alessandro Nivola is superb as the ever arrogant/soft Gavin Harris, I think that Nivola does well to express what Gavino is going through in his time at Madrid, he almost makes the film feel as if it is about the pair of them, not just about Santiago. Anna Friel is stunning as ever as Roz and I think she did well in the role of Girlfriend to the superstar.

The cameo's in the film were a bit limited and to tell the truth I am quite glad. The film so easily could have ended up as Real Madrid the movie. I think that only Guti and Illker Casillas have speaking parts and even then it is whilst winding up Gavino. The Casillas part actually had me laughing.

All in all I thoroughly liked the film, as a football fanatic it seems only logical to love the film. However with some silly story lines and un realistic action they nearly spoiled the film.

Just saw Goal 2 earlier today, opening day across the UK. I must say that it was a solid sequel to the first, which I enjoyed thoroughly. Anyone who liked the first Goal movie should enjoy this. It continues the story of Santiago who gets transferred to mega-team Real Madrid in the opening sequences and follows his new life in Spain. Massive paychecks and beautiful women begin to get to Santi's head and we see a darker, perhaps weaker side of our hero in this chapter. All the main characters from the first Goal have roles in the sequel as well as cameos by superstars like Zidane, Ronaldo, Raul and Beckham. Solid sequel that is recommended to all fans of the original! If you haven't seen Goal yet, you should catch that before seeing part 2.

I loved the first Goal!. I found it to be the best football movie since Victory,and was glad to know that it would be followed by 2 sequels that will take our Mexican Pele to Real Madrid to play Champion's league final and then to the world cup. Sorry to say,or write,and sorry for myself,this one is a step back,a big one.The only part that isn't worse in this one is Alessandro Nivola,the guy knows what he is doing and does it good.For everything else...hmmm.. First-the script is rather clumsy,making our "hero" deal with such problems as meeting his mother that left him when he was a kid,dealing with a jealous girlfriend,an injury,loss of a friend and an agent....and in a mix of all this he does actually play for Real Madrid and meets Becks,Raul,Roberto Carlos....almost like that isn't the most important thing here and the reason why me and lot of other people want to see this in a first place. The chosen director wasn't the happiest choice because the guy has serious problems with pacing and working with actors like he has already showed in his debut,the 2005 remake of Hause of Wax.I saw that a third Goal! will be directed by Michael Apted and that is a good news,at least I hope so. Well it's not all bad,after all there are so few football movies these days(unlike boxing or American football)that I cherish even a flawed one like this and will definitely check out the third Goal! once it's out.

Although I was biased towards the first movie as I am a Newcastle United fan, I felt let down by Goal! 2, not just that Munez had the audacity to leave the Toon for Real Madrid, but due to the poor direction, plot and screenplay of the sequel.

The first movie, although far from perfect, had its moments, a lively screenplay, absorbing direction and a fairly tidy plot, Goal!2 on the other hand, was found wanting in all of these areas.

The plot felt far-fetched and desperate, and the cinematography amateurish, I found the film entertaining but not absorbing, I'm sure I will watch Goal! 3 pure for a sense of personal closure rather than because of excited anticipation.

What makes football great is that it is a game of opinions. It is obvious from reading some of the postings on here that some people have judged the film on whether or not they like David Beckham. Yes, he does appear in the film, but then so do a lot of the other players. Like it or not David Beckham is one of the most bankable stars in football, so it inevitable. Lets face it anyone from Arsenal (as one of the postings is from) is not going to be a Beckham fan. Anyway, as for the film, I think the makers of the film are so intent on steering the film away from the predictability of most sports films, ie player/team starts off badly, then ends up winning an hour and a half later (well you all know what happens) that it leaves out any real moments of drama or tension. What we have left is a bit of footballers soap opera. Saying that though, I thought it was good entertainment.

I couldn't wait for this to hit the big screen but to my disappointment, the film wasn't half as good as i had expected. After seeing the first i didn't know when the super subs dream was going to end, but at Real Madrid with superstars surrounding him, i thought i was in for a treat. But to my mistake, the storyline steers of course of the footballing world bringing in a twist of family life which was almost suddenly killed of by the stress of which football brings. Every little boy's dream is to play football at a professional level but this film gives us an inside view as to what goes on off the pitch and in my opinion doesn't have enough twists in the story. As i'm a football fanatic i loved the matches they played and the 3-2 comeback in the Champions League final was amazing but so predictable. Overall i feel the film was a failure but is still worth watching so that there is some hope that GOAL III can impress and revive the disappointment of GOAL II. Daniel Bryson

Not a classic by any means, but at least, in comparison to the first one (Goal!), a more accomplished film.

The game scenes were not as contrived as in the first movie, hardly surprising since some of the clips were straight off real matches.

Becker did not look out of his depth in the company of the likes of Zidane, Roberto Carlos and David Beckham -- as long as he did not have the ball, that is. In a dressing room scene inside the Bernabeu, for instance, Becker's time on the ball in a jolly juggling scene was thankfully limited to one touch.

I guess it's too much to ask for an actor who had real football skills, and I guess that realization kept the cameras more focused on the 'real' football players in game situations. This added more to a sense of realism, as compared to the first movie when Becker was scene doing all sorts of fantastic things -- corny to a trained eye.

This movie's real merit comes from the way it handled the human element: Santi's head getting a tad too big from all the media attention and from being in the company of Real Madrid's galacticos; the lover's tiff with Roz, doubtless echoed in many a professional football player's life; and the surprise of finding he has a half-brother living in Spain along with the painful reunion with a long-lost Mother.

Dramatic without going overboard, and without losing touch with the primary plot that this is a professional footballer's story.

First of all, I have to say I quite enjoyed the first Goal! movie. However, while Goal! II improves upon the great football action portrayed in the movie, all elements of storytelling are lost.

In this installation, Santiago Munez gets his big break when Real Madrid are interested in signing him from Newcastle. His imminent decision to move to Spain causes problems which reflects the real life of a professional footballer, for example; Santiago plays in the same position as his friend, Gavin Harris, who has already settled in Real Madrid,and therefore his competitor is his own best buddy; the allures of coming with living in a posh celebrity lifestyle (there's probably about a hundred chicks included in the film, 90% of them quite hot); plus a few other points the movie brings out such as his family ties. In fact, the movie tries to focus more on the emotional and personal impacts so much they never really give any importance to winning football matches at all.

Moreover, despite the attempts at focusing on the changes to his personal life and the emotional impact he must endure, the movie never follows throughly with these subplots and we're left out in the cold. You never get to see the tension build between Gavin and Santiago and even feels like a non-issue sometimes, yet it's conveniently resolved at the end. In fact, everything gets so conveniently solved or left to forget it's often irritating. The only real issue the movie tries to explore is between Santi and his fiancée, and that is left to be resolved in Goal 3 when he goes to the World Cup with Mexico.

But despite these minuses, Goal II can probably be ranked amongst the best football films, not just because of a dire lack of them, but also because of its great football action and intelligent improvisation of real life situations. The swap-transfer of Santi is humorous, and the on-field action sequences are great. Yet the movie's strength can also lead to its downfall. While it contains a vast number of football stars, it gets irritating how none of them ever really talk, and how Beckham is somehow suddenly forced into the film as a major character without him ever needing to act or open his mouth. In fact, I got irritated at being forced to look at Beckham doing nothing so much I grew to dislike him more from this film alone than from anything else (personally, I admire his footballing skills and especially his professionalism).

Overall, it's one big high-end product-placing film with sub-par acting, bad character development, horrible screenplay, but great football action and beautiful camera work at times.

It could be a pretty good watch during the off-season, but if you're not a football fan, I highly recommend you to avoid it.

I watched the first instalment of this and after giving it a moderate rating (see my review) I thought this was worth a look.

I never had too many expectations for this film, having been put firmly on my guard after the non-events of the first and watching it with this attitude made me appreciate and enjoy this film more.

What can I say? Basically it just follows the pleasures, the trials and the tribulations involved in the life of a professional footballer who has just hit the big time after signing for the greatest football team in the world.

The story was very predictable but the football action scenes were excellent with appearances from the likes of greats such as Beckham, Zidane, Raul and Ronaldinho. Reuteur Haur took a good part as the team coach.

As usual the incredibly sexy and gorgeous Anna Friel provided the eye candy - especially in the bedroom scene wearing the frilly knickers (calm down lads), with parts of the film focusing on the emotional conflicts involved with her job as a nurse at Newcastle hospital.

Nothing too major happens but the film is enjoyable if looked upon as an accurate insight into the life of a professional footballer. All in all I would say this film was slightly better than the first, simply for the glut of football stars on view and the amount of on-field action.

This film should appeal to the football fan and non-fan alike - a good movie to snuggle down on the sofa with your beloved whilst cracking a few beers and the popcorn.

Goal 3 perhaps? Who knows?

The movie starts out having a lot of promise. Then as the plot progresses, it becomes more and more about some selfish douche bag's encounter with other selfish douche bags, especially his little douche of a brother. This movie isn't even about football anymore, it's just a Spanish soap opera. FIFA and the producers of this movie should be paying me for the time I wasted watching this movie.

The special effects are excellent. They should have spent less money on the special effects and more on the storyline.

It's also one giant ad for adidas, audi, lamborghini, and some other corporations.

The writers, director, and producers should be ashamed. Such huge star power, wasted.

Quite predictable but still worth a watch. There wasn't really much they could've done with this because it was only going to go one way , him becoming one of the best footballers and I just thought it was a little boring.

Living the Dream? More like Living the Nightmare!

The first Goal movie brought plenty of cheers to football fans, who celebrated the coming of a decent movie about the beloved Beautiful Game. And it didn't disappoint, with a likable hero in Santiago Munez (Kuno Becker) in a rags to riches story, nifty footwork and camera-work, locales familiar to English Premier League fans, the seamless combination of real world match footage with fictional shots taken on match days, and access to seldom seen areas in and around the stadiums.

The story of Santiago continues in this UK-Spain-Germany production, with the stage moving from England to Spain (and to Germany of course for the World Cup). With the first movie centered on the domestic football league following Newcastle's season, the sequel brings us to the Spanish La Liga, and firmly the spotlight of matches put on Europe's Champions League games. It's a no-brainer that German involvement will be of course the World Cup which just ended last year, and given that this sequel is delayed, you'd still get to see Real Madrid's ex-galacticos like Roberto Carlos, Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham and Ronaldo, besides mainstayers like Iker Caillas and Raul Gonzalez, amongst others (see if you can spot McManaman!)

In a player swap deal with Michael Owen, we see Munez head to Real Madrid, in probably almost every footballer's dream to play for one of the biggest clubs in the world. And of course with hard nosed coach Rudi Van Der Merwe (Rutger Hauer) at the helm, our new recruit has to prove his worth before being handed some first team duties. But good friend and ex-Newcastle player Gavin Harris (Alessandro Nivola) is on hand at the club (reference the first movie shall we) to provide Munez some action, especially when Harris is running afoul with Rudi for his lost form.

The football sequences here are rather straightforward, and more of the same we saw in the first movie, save for some spectacular, probably CG-ed movies like the volleys, overhead kicks and diving headers. The number of matches being featured too is much less, as the story wanted to focus on our player's life outside of football.

You know, by putting all the press reports that you read day in day out of boozing, incessant partying, easy models who don't bat an eyelid looking to get between the sheets with the players, flashy sports cars, designer togs, mansions with numerous rooms, and the likes. Munez lives the dream in material wealth, although this starts to get into his head and takes a toil with his relationships, especially with girlfriend Roz (Anna Friel). There are numerous subplots put into Goal 2, but most times they are superficially touched upon for the sole purpose of covering the ground, and then forgotten conveniently, like the paparazzi photo- journalist, and various incidents on and off the pitch.

What I thought slowed the movie down further, was the injection of Munez's typical stepbrother brat from hell, and mother, who were conspicuously absent in the first movie, then reintroduced here just to amplify the moments that try to touch the heart (like in the first movie with the dad and grandmother), but one without which I feel would not make much of a difference. Couple this family reunion-reconciliation of sorts, together with his struggles with injury and attempts to shake off the "super-sub" tag, Munez has his hands full.

While the other real life players do not have much speaking lines (or none at all), you can't help but to feel both Kuno Becker and Alessandro Nivola being fish out of water in the Real Madrid dressing room, where either the charismatic players will undoubtedly get the audience attention with their antics or camaraderie which shines through, or clever editing and cinematography tells you that shots have been made with the clear exclusion of those players in some movie magic moments. The movie too seemed to like David Beckham, given plenty of scenes, befitting probably of his real last hurrah at the club before leaving them this summer.

And for Arsenal fans like myself, while it's a blast to see the team featured in this movie, and the likes of Jose Antonio Reyes (who incidentally played for Real Madrid few weeks ago and created then scored 2 crucial goals in their final league game to hand them the La Liga title), Robert Pires and a fictional TJ featured alongside our Captain Thierry Henry (don't leave!), the result is blasphemous as the last time we went head-on with Real, it was in the first knockout round 2 seasons ago where we triumphed 1-0.

So the scoreline at the end, well, it's actually living in the dream. Given that the ending is one of the technical worst that can happen, leading straight to the third installment, let's hope that the concluding chapter really does see the light of day. Not as polished as the first one with the novelty factor wearing off, but let's judge the series as a whole once the sequel screens. Excellent soundtrack once again, coupled with the usual product placement shots for Adidas.

IMDb haven't rated this movie better then its prequel " Goal- The dream begins" but i found this movie a fantastic return,Santiago Munez from a small town aspiring soccer player to a infamous football player is a journey which in a unsaid way is truly aspiring,As with fame and money comes arrogance and carelessness which takes away the sanity and innocence of true genius player..Fails to keep up with the paparazzi and further messes up with all his well wishers..With a final hooter to go loud ..Santi makes a close come back and silents his critics with a dream net hit..Beckham and Harris are always a pleasure be seen on a big screen and with no doubt makes a solid impact.

All in all ..This one is surely a dream

I found Goal 2 Living the Dream a wonderful sequel to Goal. A lot of people have bagged this film saying its too predictable. Hey its not an Oscar movie but hey do you want them all the time.

Goal 2 follows Santiago Munez through the next phase of his soccer career and all the same characters are back. I loved it.

The football scenes are awesome you really believe that the players are playing in front of huge crowds and the storyline is very engaging.

There is a lot of drama in this movie so its not all football scenes but this to me add to the worth of this film. I enjoyed every minute of it and got goose bumps as it really immerses you in the life of a multi million dollar footballer. I cant wait to see Goal 3

Not too many words can be wasted on this movie. I have already wasted 2 and half hours of my life. To cut the long story short, this movie is all about the high society indulgence and a really lame story. The story lifts off from where it's predecessor left - Munez gets into Real Madrid. He becomes a part of high society, thereby drifting off from his loved ones. He searches for his mother and his step brother plays, It's about how he ... heck, the story is so badly narrated that I am not able to write a summary.

Danny Cannon did a way better job in Goal! The Dream Begins than Jaume Collet-Serra who has absolutely destroyed what could have been a potentially brilliant drama.

That's it. I refuse to write anymore for this piece of garbage. Did I mention that I feel like kicking Jaume Collet-Serra into the goalpost.