Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 30, 1995 TAG: 9510030015
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The setting is an economically depressed section of rural Texas, and the Lone Star state has never seemed so underfed and exhausted on screen. The characters have equally worn edges, though they're such sketchy stick figures that references to alcoholism, divorce, unemployment and illegal immigration don't mean much.
As the film begins, it's been years since the backwater burg of Elma has produced anything of note. The few people who are left don't like their town or themselves. Anna Montgomery (Olivia D'Abo), the new "exchange teacher" from England, means to change that. She tells her students that they're "special" and decides to turn them into a soccer team though they've never even seen a game. Their first opponents are the evil Knights.
Tom Palmer (Steve Guttenberg), the town sheriff, volunteers to help. He's more interested in romance than athletics. As for the kids, red-headed Patrick Renna as the goalie who must overcome his fears, Jessie Robertson as a cynical girl and Anthony Esquivel as the unlikely soccer star stand out in a lackluster crowd.
First-time director Holly Goldberg Sloan, who wrote the script for Disney's "Angels in the Outfield," never really captures the flow of a game in the soccer scenes. And she lets the action off field sputter at a fitful pace. Most of the humor comes from fast-motion sequences. The young crowd at one preview screening was fairly bored until the big finish when they cheered and applauded with tepid enthusiasm.
The Big Green * 1/2
A Disney release playing at the Salem Valley 8, Valley View 6. 100 min. Rated PG for sports action, subject matter.
by CNB