Tag Archives: Beulah Koale

Next Goal Wins – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A fun time that gets held back by some wooden acting and forced storytelling.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

The Team v the Coach.

Next Goal Wins Review –

I have been enjoying my time at the Brisbane International Film Festival, but as always, things must come to an end. But if you are going to pick a film to end it on, Taika Waititi’s romp about the American Samoa Football Team is an excellent place to do it. This is a sports story that is so infamous that even I have heard about it. With that in mind, let’s play some soccer and see how a team can come back from abject embarrassment.

So to set the scene, American Samoa has been at the bottom of FIFA’s rankings for an age and reached an even lower level in 2001 World Cup qualifiers when, during a game with Australia, they lost 31-0. Tavita (Oscar Kightley) tries to manage the club, but he has become a laughingstock in the soccer community. After some pushing from his wife, Ruth (Rachel House), he applies to the American Soccer Federation for a new coach. Well, this might be a Hail Mary, but at that moment, they have a coach who is about to get fired, and Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) has only one option: take a plane into the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

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Shadow In The Cloud – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Conceptionally, this is an interesting film, but I am not sure it makes the leap from concept to the final film.     

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this movie.

Shadow In The Cloud. Image Credit: Roadshow Films.

Shadow In The Cloud Review –

Well, today, we look at a film that is clearly swinging for the fences in what it wants to do. It’s a wild ride, like anything experimental, but like some experiments, it doesn’t quite work in places.  

So to set the scene, we open in World War 2 with a short cartoon reminding everyone that there is no such thing as gremlins, and only airmen can stop disasters in the sky. At an Allied Airbase in Auckland, a B-17 bomber called The Fool’s Errand is waiting to take transistors to Apia, Samoa. However, just before they take off, Flying Officer Maude Garrett (Chloë Grace Moretz) arrives with a broken arm, a mysterious package, and secrecy orders. The crew is quite miffed about the change of plans, but they relent, and the plane takes off, with Maude in the Sperry Ball turret on the bottom of the aircraft. Her goal is working until they see some Japanese planes and a creature crawling on the wing.  

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