United Passions (2014)

[PaulyPaul 1]

Please watch this terrible FIFA vanity movie so we don't have to: http://en.wikipedia....United_Passions

 

To quote John Oliver on Last Week Tonight: "Who makes a sports film where the heroes are the executives?"

[sillstaw 414]

To quote John Oliver on Last Week Tonight: "Who makes a sports film where the heroes are the executives?"

 

This was my thought when "Draft Day" came out.

 

Also, it's worth noting that this movie is a giant flop. Here in America, it has grossed $607; to quote the AV Club, "Even if you charitably calculate using the lower end of national admission prices—the film opened in 10 markets, all big cities—there’s no way this glorified advertisement for FIFA sold more than 80 tickets total. More people probably turned out for your kids’ indoor soccer match on Saturday."

 

Worldwide, it's made less than $200,000 on a budget of around $30,000,000. And keep in mind, it was released in European countries last year, before the corruption charges were brought. When you can't sell a movie involving soccer/football to Europeans, you shouldn't be making movies.

[DOMIDARKO 7]

Are you saying they pulled a "producers"?

[SlidePocket 707]

How on earth did Tim Roth, Sam Neill and Gerard Depardieu wind up in this mess? Did FIFA blackmail them to appear in their vanity project or something? Also this movie is also on the IMDb Bottom 100 in case you're wondering based on the backlash.

[IJoinedJustForThis 35]

Depardieu has devolved into a well-documented drunk that has given up his french citizenship in favor of a russian one (IIRC for tax purposes). I remember him shaking hands with and praising Putin at his passport ceremony. I suppose he needs all the cash he can get. Dunno about the other two, nor am I familiar with this movie. The box office numbers mentioned above make me curious despite not being interested in football at all, but I know better than to watch this. Not even for the podcast, I learned my lesson.

[RyanSz 3140]

Tim Roth has gone on record saying he did it for the money and didn't realize how much of a fluff piece it would be for FIFA, and if I remember right it came out as the corruption charges were picking up steam, so it wasn't helped by that either.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

John Oliver did a really good piece on the corruption in FIFA on an episode of "Last Week Tonight", where they also talked about this film quite a bit, which made me curious enough to want to check it out. Eventually...

[Glen Toran 94]

Tim Roth has gone on record saying he did it for the money and didn't realize how much of a fluff piece it would be for FIFA, and if I remember right it came out as the corruption charges were picking up steam, so it wasn't helped by that either.

 

That reminds me of the, sadly, probably apocryphal quote of legendary classical actor Sir John Geilgud when asked about his involvement in the now infamous -and totally fucking awesome - 1979 movie 'Caligula':

"I didnt know it was going to be pornographic when I first read the paycheck."

[Reptarftw 27]

I think movies like this are, of course, awful. But they're just boring to analyze.

 

I'm more for HDTGM looking at bonkers-badfilm, not just really boring bad films.

[Mullon 1]

I would like to see them do an episode about this because I find the making of it interesting, but I don't think the movie would be interesting to watch on my own.

[RyanSz 3140]

In regards to Draft Day that was mentioned earlier, I ended up watching that on a business trip and while the ending is completely unrealistic that any NFL team, let alone the Cleveland Browns, could finagle so many key moves to get every player and trade needed to become a Super Bowl Contender within the next couple years, the film did a pretty good job of showcasing the behind the scenes drama of what the draft day is really like. It also had some good moments of Kevin Costner dealing with family drama of trying to live up to his dad's legacy and a few other bits that were pretty decent; Ironically, when that movie came out the Browns did a life imitating art where they made a bunch of big trades and moves in order to get at the time a couple key players. Unfortunately, the big name that they traded picks for Johnny Manziel, who ended up being one of the biggest draft busts in NFL history by being a total dumpster fire on and off the field.