The second part of the football movie trilogy Goal!, Goal II: Living the Dream is a rags-to-riches melodrama with enough twists and turns to hook sports fans and drama-lovers alike.
The movie begins with real-life footage set to a soundtrack of opera music. We see Real Madrid losing to Barcelona. It is a great opening, portraying football as more than just a sport.
Real Madrid sign Santiago Munez (Kuno Becker), the young Mexican immigrant who became the star of Newcastle United in the first Goal! movie, to bring some much needed new blood to the squad.
The boy wonder teams up with his best friend Gavin Harris (Alessandro Nivola) as the most lethal strike force in Europe.
As with all sports movies, failure comes before success. Munez soon finds himself relegated to the bench, hounded by the paparazzi, dropped by his fiance and haunted by his past.
Football fans will be delighted by the cameo appearances of football stars such as Zinedine Zidane and Roberto Carlos. The climax, a fictitious European Cup final pitting Real Madrid against Arsenal, is cliched but amusing, unless you're a Thierry Henry fan.
