I really don't understand why they remade it. Surely it doesn't matter what sport it is, anyone being a diehard sports fan would be able to understand the obsession. I'm not even a huge soccer fan, and I thought the English version was better. No need for them to redo it.
"Look lady I don't come down to where you work and slap the d!ck out of your mouth".
Mainly because this film was mostly for an American audience. Soccer has never attracted a large fan base in film in the United States. Baseball, on the other hand, is "America's pass time." The first Fever Pitch (which I saw and liked though I didn't understand the soccer lingo at all) didn't reach as many movie goers and faded away fairly quickly, at least in the United States.
Mostly, I love this version, though, because I am a Sox fan and watching a movie that so perfectly captured the heartbreak and joy of being a Sox fan during that particular season was great. This movie is more than just a little romance to baseball fans... though I bet Yankee fans hate it.
Ms. Pac Man is my hero.
Yippee-Ki-Yay, *beep*!
Because baseball plays the same part in US life that football does in most of the UK. Also a US audience wouldnt recognise the references to Arsenal's offside trap or the Hillsbrough disaster.
shareAgreed. Plus Redsox do have a lot of obsessed fans. It rang true for me.
shareI agree - I don't think the Americans would be able to relate as easily to the UK version by virtue of the references to Hillsborough, Tony Adams, "Europe", and the "offside trap". However, football is something that the Americans are able to understand increasingly - "Bend It Like Beckham" did fairly well in the States, much better than expected.
shareI know about Hillsborough, but yeah clueless to the others.
At the time Beckham wasn't well known in the States. I remember renting it and looking at the title and saying 'what the hell is a 'Beckham'?'. but I think BLB did really well because there are a lot of kids who play soccer and the woman's team, before it disbanned, was pretty popular so a lot of little girls looked up to women like Hamm. They could relate to the girls in the movie, although in America soccer isn't a predominately male sport. Young kids sometimes play on co-ed teams, so that aspect (the girls not getting the respect) might have flown over their heads.
If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all
I thought this movie was in English.
shareThey're referring to the British version released in 1997 with Colin Firth.
shareI'm Canadian and I saw this version first and really liked it, but now that I've seen the British version I like it better. And I'm a much bigger baseball fan than I am a soccer fan.
shareThat’s weird, I should explain: I have read and watched the original Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby, which I enjoyed, but not immensely, because I felt the intensity of the book wasn’t portrayed accurately enough on screen, and also because (unusually for an Englishman), I am not a soccer fan, let alone an Arsenal supporter (rugby union is my winter game), I am, however as big member of the Sox Nation as one can be, living 3500 miles away (I lived in Back Bay and worked just off Exchange Place for 2 years), which is the only reason I watched this movie (re-named The Perfect Catch in the UK). Initially I regretted my choice, assuming it to be a regular ‘chick flick’, but I stuck with it, and I’m glad I did.
Although the film could have benefited from more illustrations of the Sox’ fans obsession with statistics (in the British version, so is Paul Ashworth), I guess this would have bored fans of other teams. What I particularly enjoyed, however, was the assumption that viewers were able to figure out for themselves exactly what was happening on the diamond. Too many times we are spoon-fed the minutae, as though no one is capable of understanding the basics of the game. I loved the vintage footage, and I’m sure those were real fans! So this wasn’t just another chick flick, but a film about an all-conquering obsession, and greatly enjoyable too. One criticism: The British version ended with Arsenal FC winning the Premier League in 1988-89 with no juggling of the games, or falsification of any results. In 2004 the Sox did qualify as the wild card, and went on to break the curse, and win the World Series, but the games shown here were moved around, as were the actual results…Why?..This was a genuinely great sporting achievement, and illustrating it this way simply cheapens it…The green monster nation will love it, the creatures will hate it...And with Hollywood's obsession with franchises and sequels, how about an update for 2007?..Or even (hold your breath and hope, we're only one week past opening day, and there's a way to go yet, but we just beat the Royals 8-6), 2010?..
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...
I do not believe any of the games "depicted" toward the end of the movie were "juggled." In the American League Championship (best of 7 games) Series, the Red Sox did lose the first three to the Yankees but then won four straight which put them in to the World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals (also best of 7) where they too won four straight. It would have been quite difficult to make the fictitious any more dramatic than what actually happened in real life.
shareNormally I do prefer the original movie and i love foreign films, but dude, the Red Sox, not only the Red Sox but them winning the series....best movie ever made (Sox fan in me talking here)
shareBorn and bred British here and I actually liked the US version better, and neither Baseball nor Football are my thing.
shareUnusually, I thought both films were good, rather than the usual: Great film gets re-made as a second rate shadow of its original incarnation. Each of these has its particular strengths but both are thoroughly enjoyable.
shareI watched this movie and it was in English?
share