United Passions

The $30M film grossed a whopping $900 in the US. I'm shocked - I assumed people would go to it as they would go to see The Room.

That might have been the case had the film come out a few months earlier, or even right after the World Cup. But now the context is a bit… inapropriate to laugh about it. It's kind of amazing that they still decided to release the film actually.

Although "Blatter seems good at finding money" might become a meme.

Still, 900$… isn't that a record? ò.Ô

edited 9th Jun '15 3:22:59 PM by Lyendith

Yeah I think this was a massive case of Too Soon, especially given how self-serving it is.

Also, soccer simply isn't that popular in the U.S. so the subject matter was kind of niche to begin with over here.

edited 9th Jun '15 3:36:22 PM by comicwriter

Not as niche as you may think it is, considering the growth of both men's and women's national teams and the (slightly less big of a) growth of the MLS. There has been an increase in both interest and audiences.

edited 9th Jun '15 3:30:09 PM by Quag15

I figure it's due to no one hearing of this movie and the very few who did not wanting to support such corrupt bullshit.

I haven't even heard about this propaganda piece until today. Even so, it screams desperation in trying to make something tarnished still have merits.

Reminds of Justin Bieber's Believe.

It's not even close to a record.

Zyzzyx Road (2006) Director: John Penney Distributor: Regent Releasing Budget: $2 million Domestic Gross: $30, readjusted to $20

This independent film thriller, starring Katherine Heigl and Tom Sizemore, gained notoriety as the lowest grossing film of all time. It played in only one theatre (in Dallas, TX) for only six days, and took in only $20.

"Also, soccer simply isn't that popular in the U.S. so the subject matter was kind of niche to begin with over here."

Overall, the highest revenue outside of North America came from Russia and the CIS (£144,000), Portugal (£4,000) and Serbia (£2,000).

I think Putin and the 2018 World Cup is the reason it made that much in Russia.

In France, it went straight to DVD.

"The Film Bar theater in Downtown Phoenix reported a gross of just $9, meaning only one person bought a ticket to see the film."

Which one of you went to see it?

Ooh, it's still playing in the Cinema Village here in NYC. Audience participation, anyone?

edited 9th Jun '15 7:03:57 PM by AnotherGuy

Oh, a line from the film:

“The slightest breach of ethics will be severely punished.”

I was going to create the movie page 2 days ago, but was tired. Someone beat me to it.

edited 9th Jun '15 7:22:51 PM by AnotherGuy

I'm kinda embarassed, for some reason...

Why do I think of this now…?

… But outside of the context and obvious hagiographical nature of the thing, I wonder if it has any redeeming traits, "artistically"? =[

edited 10th Jun '15 2:02:39 AM by Lyendith

Well, go to listen to Sam Neill's "Brazilian" accent.

It has no redeeming traits. None. I won't be listening to Talking Heads' "Wild Wild Life" for a while due to this movie.

I survived this movie. My poor football soul took a while to recover...

edited 5th Jul '15 3:55:50 PM by Quag15

Watch Invictus to help you feel better faster.

No it won't. Not with a horribly miscast Matt Damon.

So, the amount of posts on this film so far almost matches the amount of people who went to see this film, given it only made 900 bucks?

There's a lol in there somewhere, I'm sure.

Zyzzyx Road cost $2M to make, grossed a whopping $20 in box office.

Yeah, but, considering the budget this movie had (somewhere above $20M), the 'bomb ratio' of this movie is way bigger.

Slate's podcast has posted an Alternate DVD Commentary.

So I got around to watching the thing. Sadly or thankfully, I was mostly immune to its badness after all I read.

This is… a slice-of-life movie, basically. That's the first time I watch a movie with the impression that nothing significant has happened at the end. There's no tension buildup or climax. However there are a lot of hilariously over-the-top moments. At every turn you have grandiose music and dramatic effects for events… no one really cares about. Like, the defeat of Brazil against Uruguay in the 1950 finals is treated as if it was 9/11 or something. Same for Blatter's reelection at the end. When Zep walked, he washed my sins away. \o/

It's made even more funny by Tim Roth's performance, who plays the guy less like the Messiah and more like a guy who gives. Zero. Fuck. And really, all the actors participate in making the movie hilarious at times. But there's no way it could have been otherwise with the dialogues they were given.

Othen than that, in this movie you're often wondering "why?" Why are we shown this random football game between kids at regular intervals? Why doess Jules Rimet's daughter have a perfect British accent event though her father speaks in his best Frenglish? Why does Blatter look at this coffin of someone we don't know in one scene?

On the plus side… well, the film admittedly has some decent music and pretty imagery, but that's not the hardest thing to get in a modern movie with a lot of budget.

So in the end… yeah, a pretty funny movie. Probably dark humor though, considering the subject and context.

Watch it with Slate's riffing :p