THE BECKER BUGLE

Mexican actor KUNO BECKER almost missed out starring in soccer movie trilogy GOAL because he could hardly kick a ball at his audition. Becker, who plays footballer SANTIAGO MUNEZ in the DANNY CANNON films, reveals the director almost sent him home after he failed to deliver on the soccer pitch.

But Becker persevered because he'd worked so hard on his skills in the weeks leading up to the audition in England. He explains, "I trained so hard that I had stress fractures in my ankles. So the day of the audition, I was icing my feet every two hours. Forget about playing soccer, I couldn't walk.

"Danny Cannon told me to do a couple of things with the ball and I couldn't do them. He told me to go back and catch my flight to Los Angeles, and thanks for coming. "I said to myself, 'I'm already here. I broke my freakin' ankles, so he at least has to see what I've learned.' "I went back and told one of the producers, 'Tell Danny Cannon to try to get the ball from me, on the field.' Danny tried five times and could only do it once.

"When I was in the parking lot, the producer came to me and said, 'You know what? You got the role.'" But that wasn't the end of injury-prone Becker's pain: "During filming somebody hit me and accidentally broke my nose and then when we shot the sequel, somebody broke it again." The trilogy's second installment GOAL 2: LIVING THE DREAM is released this autumn (06).

Goal! The Dream Begins" is another sports movie that shares the love of the sport with heart.

Newcomer Kuno Becker plays Santiago Muñez, an illegal immigrant who came from Mexico to Los Angeles to do yard work with his father's company. The only thing that he does for himself is play soccer.

When former scout Glen Foy, played by Stephen Dillane, happens to see Muñez playing club soccer, he tells Muñez that if he wanted to, he could have a chance at going pro. After much consideration and many fights with his father, Muñez catches a plane to Newcastle, England, to try out for their professional soccer team.

The trial is long and Muñez suffers many speed bumps in his path to success, even a romantic plot twist, but, of course, his story ends happily.

Many Redlands movie goers enjoyed this version of a hero's rise from the gutter, giving the movie an overall rating of 4.7 out of 5. Fourteen people filled out a survey at the 1:55 p.m. showing on May 14 at the Krikorian Theaters in Redlands. Five of them said they would absolutley reccommend it.

The acting was also extremely well received by the Sunday crowd. Many thought highly of Becker's performance in particular.

"Everyone held their own; the actor who played Santiago Muñez was very believable, as well as all of the others," said Sylvia Banta of Redlands.

Wendy Thomas of Irvine commented on Becker's acting ability as an up-and-coming actor.

"I had never heard of Kuno Becker before this movie. He was impressive!" she said.

Many were impressed with the plot line and called it "exciting."

Banta said that the plot was both "exciting and believable, although possibly not probable."

The music was a definite winner, as many audience members said that they would soon be purchasing the soundtrack.

"We're going to buy it now," Banta said.

"I am going to get the soundtrack right now," said Thomas.

The soundtrack included such songs by former Oasis bandmate Noel Gallagher as "Who Put the Weight of the World on My Shoulders?" and a remix of the Oasis song "Morning Glory."

Because of a great deal of sports action, the cinematography was mainly done on the field, which few members of the audience commented on. Banta did think that it was "very good."

The story of "Goal! The Dream Begins" speaks to its audience of triumph and strife, pain and excitement. The movie shows its viewers the life of a young man who has nothing but a talent that is waiting to be discovered. And, of course, success ensues.  

BY ROGER EBERT / May 12, 2006

"Goal! The Dream Begins" is a rags-to-riches sports saga containing all the usual elements, arranged in the usual ways, and yet it's surprisingly effective. We have the kid from Mexico who dreams of soccer stardom, his impoverished life in Los Angeles as an undocumented immigrant, his dad who scorns soccer, his grandmother who believes in him, the scout who gets him a tryout with a top British team, the superstar who befriends him, and even a pretty nurse.

The movie works because it is, above all, sincere. It's not sports by the numbers. The starring performance by Kuno Becker is convincing and dimensional and we begin to care for him. He plays Santiago Munez, a busboy in a Los Angeles Chinese restaurant, who plays in an after-work soccer league so deprived that he wears cardboard shin protectors. Then he's spotted by a former soccer pro (Stephen Dillane), who tells him he has potential, and arranges for him to get a tryout with Newcastle United.

That would however involve an air ticket to England. Santiago has some money saved, but his dad (Tony Plana) nicks it to buy a pickup truck and start his own landscaping business. This is cruel, but perhaps more practical than betting the money on a future in soccer. Santiago's grandmother (Miriam Colon) says she hasn't worked for a lifetime without having some savings, and pays for him to fly to London out of Mexico City -- a wise precaution, since he has no American passport or identity.

In Newcastle, Santiago undergoes a rough initiation at the hands of the hardened soccer pros, gets his first experience of soccer in the mud, and almost loses his place on the team because of his asthma. What saves him is an accidental friendship with the team's superstar Gavin Harris (Alessandro Nivola), a party animal. How the season turns out and how Santiago fares I will leave for you to discover, not only in this movie, but in "Goal! 2: Living the Dream," which comes out later this year, and in "Goal! 3," scheduled for 2007. The fact that "Goal! 4" is not in pre-production will soon, I am sure, be remedied.

Before "Goal!" began, I moaned to a colleague that I was dreading the screening. Any movie named "Goal!" that needs an exclamation mark seems to be protesting too much, and the words "The Dream Begins" suggest that the snores will shortly follow. I see an average of one sports movie a month in which an underdog (or underhorse, or undergymnast) overcomes the odds in order to earn their exclamation mark. I know all about the grizzled coaches, the mean teammates, the dad who doesn't understand and the girl who does.

I was surprised, then, to find myself enjoying the movie almost from the beginning. It had some of the human reality of  Gregory Nava's work in movies like "Mi Familia" and the PBS series "American Family." Not the depth or beauty, to be sure, but the feeling for a culture and family ties. And Kuno Becker, a Mexican star of films and TV and three English-language films, has not only star quality but something more rare, likability. He makes us want his character to succeed.

Where possible, the director Danny Cannon sidesteps some (not all) of the cliches. We suspect Santiago's father may be proud of his son after all, but are unprepared for the way that plays out, and how Santiago's toughness is both the right and wrong choice. We know all about the understanding Irish nurse Roz (Anna Friel), except that she will have insight and understanding. We are relieved, in a way, to be spared an obligatory sex scene. And it is interesting that the boss of the Newcastle United team is not made into your standard Bob Hoskins or Colm Meany role, but is written as a German and cast with a Romanian, Marcel Iures.

"Goal! The Dream Begins" is a great sports film, and I can easily contain my impatience for "Goal! 2" and "Goal! 3".(which should, but will not, be titled "Goal! 3: The Dreamer Awakes"). But it is good and caring work, with more human detail than we expect. Specifically, it is more about Santiago's life as a young man than it is about who wins the big match. There's a subtext about immigrants in America that is timely right now, and a certain sadness in his father's conviction that some people are intended to be rich and others poor, and that the Munez family should be content and grateful to be poor. Santiago is not content, but he is driven not so much by ambition as by pure and absolute love of soccer, and that gives the movie a purity that shines through.