Rating: 
Summary: don't be fooled....
Review: ...by the cheesy packaging this film comes in. the image of a woman half-clothed, with only soccer cleats covering her breasts, and the comment "there's more than one way to score" are stupid, are not-at-all representative of the fine film housed within. further, the text on the back of the box was equally as obviously written by some marketing "genius" with NO knowledge of soccer whatsoever ("The Arsenals?"). it's true that you may need to watch it with a soccer fanatic, just for the purpose of translation, but it is a heartfelt paean to the devotion some of us have to the sport....even some of us born and raised in the US!!!! comical, dramatic, with important historical soccer subtext, it's marvelous. shoot, i never thought ANYTHING would get me to root for Arsenal!!!
Rating: 
Summary: About a football boy
Review: A disappointment. And I am not referring to the racy DVD cover of football cleats dangled before a topless blond, with the caption, "There's more than one way to score." If you follow the devoted football fan genre, the story is as weak as the cover is misleading.Yes, these 'small' English films allow Americans to see parts of London left out of the tour guides and brochures. This 'slice of life' of a football fanatic -- not a hooligan -- captures the teacher's small flat, the local, the grass roots fans, the seasonal swings in the mood around football. The Arsenal stands. The working class neighborhoods. But that's about all. If you want to summarize the film, think of "About a boy', Hornby's book and film, and add football, and you have the basic idea for Fever. Substitute Colin Firth for Hugh Grant, and you have the same man-as-boy ("Peter Pan") problem, only Fever's Firth is arrested in his development by his devotion to football and Boy's Grant is arrested in his development by the financial arrangements made by his dad. Both characters have a strained yet essentially positive relationship with their fathers, and both of these thirty-something men have to sort out both their commitments to women and the unsolicited fatherly role model they play for impressonable teenage boys. The love story is hard to explain unless you accept the young, hardened, beautiful spinster theory, a woman who once accepting a ride home from the disheveled protagonist, immediately offers to have him spend the night. Yes, there is some logic in the opposites attract approach but the rest of the film offers more reasons for them to split then they have to stay together, outside the obvious bond that entangles them more than it draws them together. Yes, Hornby's humor is spot on. The little things in life do matter, even when they are done in voiceover in the film. But capturing a magic moment -- miracle -- in Arsenal's down-up-down-then-up-again season makes it all a little too easy.
Rating:
Summary: Colin and Soccer
Review: A pleasant but very predictable love story about Soccer (Football) and the addiction of sports. Colin Firth plays a boy who thinking he finally has something that his father likes that he can hold onto takes to soccer like a fish to water. As he grows the soccer becomes such an obsession that he even starts to let it take the place of relationships. As he finally meets the woman for him it is interesting to see each of them grow. It is a pleasant but predictable movie.
Not much in the way of extra's on the DVD though.
Rating:
Summary: Fever Pitch scores
Review: A terrific film, particularly for any man who's grown up obsessed with a sports team. This will most effectively hit home for us British guys who've grown up living and dying according to our football (soccer) team's weekly fortune ... but the film should translate for similar American males. It's one of those comedies that manages to strike the right note of being funny, sad, and very realistic ... a lot of fun.
Rating: 
Summary: Reply to writer from San Marco, CA
Review: Arsenal's home jersey's are red, but their away jersey's are yellow. Travelling fans will often wear their home jersey's when following their team on the road, but the team will naturally be wearing their away jerseys. This is consistent for all teams across Europe - different colour home and away kits.
Rating:
Summary: Reply to writer from San Marco, CA
Review: Arsenal's home jersey's are red, but their away jersey's are yellow. Travelling fans will often wear their home jersey's when following their team on the road, but the team will naturally be wearing their away jerseys. This is consistent for all teams across Europe - different colour home and away kits.
Rating:
Summary: Here's a case where the film beats the book
Review: As a Nick Hornby fan, I read "Fever Pitch" and found it to be very masculine. It was organized much like the sports page--match by match, sort of a statistical chronicle of Arsenal over several decades. The film, on the other hand, centers on the personal life of the football fanatic (closely based on Nick Hornby himself) and provides much more balance and intrigue. The match-up of the serious, somewhat humorless female English teacher and the passionate-about-football but about little else male English teach is enticing. She wants to learn to loosen up and connect with her students and their parents the way she perceives he does, and he wants to be with someone attractive with backbone and spark. As played by Ruth Gemmell and Colin Firth, you see why these opposites attract and you also see why they conflict. Despite the provocative cover, I don't see why this film is rated R. Language, maybe, and adult ideas? The sex is tame and modest, although there is an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Still, I think this would be as good a film for the teenage sports fan as it is for adults. How passions conflict (in this case, between love and sports fanaticism) and how compromises and resolutions can be made is a worthy topic to address and is well answered in this film.
Rating:
Summary: Here's a case where the film beats the book
Review: As a Nick Hornby fan, I read "Fever Pitch" and found it to be very masculine. It was organized much like the sports page--match by match, sort of a statistical chronicle of Arsenal over several decades. The film, on the other hand, centers on the personal life of the football fanatic (closely based on Nick Hornby himself) and provides much more balance and intrigue. The match-up of the serious, somewhat humorless female English teacher and the passionate-about-football but about little else male English teach is enticing. She wants to learn to loosen up and connect with her students and their parents the way she perceives he does, and he wants to be with someone attractive with backbone and spark. As played by Ruth Gemmell and Colin Firth, you see why these opposites attract and you also see why they conflict. Despite the provocative cover, I don't see why this film is rated R. Language, maybe, and adult ideas? The sex is tame and modest, although there is an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Still, I think this would be as good a film for the teenage sports fan as it is for adults. How passions conflict (in this case, between love and sports fanaticism) and how compromises and resolutions can be made is a worthy topic to address and is well answered in this film.
Rating:
Summary: okay...I guess
Review: As much as I love Colin Firth, I didn't find this movie too interesting. Not much plot. I found this movie slightly boring. Maybe it's because I've never been much of a sports fan. I wouldn't say "don't watch it, it's terrible" though. I must admit, it's nice to see Colin Firth in a role that's not Darcy-like. He is quite good in this role. Supposedly "a contender for the best romantic comedy" of 1997, I didn't find this movie very amusing. I found the relationship between the two main characters...weird, I guess... How does she fall in love with this guy so quickly? Sorry this isn't a particularly well-described review, but I don't know how to explain it. I just didn't see it as a great movie.
Rating:
Summary: okay...I guess
Review: As much as I love Colin Firth, I didn't find this movie too interesting. Not much plot. I found this movie slightly boring. Maybe it's because I've never been much of a sports fan. I wouldn't say "don't watch it, it's terrible" though. I must admit, it's nice to see Colin Firth in a role that's not Darcy-like. He is quite good in this role. Supposedly "a contender for the best romantic comedy" of 1997, I didn't find this movie very amusing. I found the relationship between the two main characters...weird, I guess... How does she fall in love with this guy so quickly? Sorry this isn't a particularly well-described review, but I don't know how to explain it. I just didn't see it as a great movie.
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