Sometimes I'm in the mood for light entertainment. Sure, I love movies that are intense and make me think, like "Irréversible" and "Eyes Wide Shut," there isn't enough of that out there. But a lotta times, I wanna see something that'll entertain me, make me happy, and won't require me to think too much. "Bend It Like Beckham" seemed like the perfect movie for that. Every review I read was very positive. Critics said it was sweet, funny, simple, enjoyable... exactly the kinda movie I've been wanting to see for a while. So I saw "Bend It Like Beckham," and I'm glad I did. It's a sweet-natured, lighthearted film that I really enjoyed.

This movie features a girls soccer team, and when I say "soccer," I mean no disrespect to those who call it "football." I'm an American, so I know it as soccer, though to be honest with you, I don't know why. If you ask me, American football should be called something else, because "football" really does seem more appropriate for the game of soccer. Then again, we yanks seem to do everything ass backwards. Like the Metric System, for instance. Everyone around the world uses the Metric System, which is logical, convenient, and simple. But not us, we have our own system of measurement, which is more complicated. No wonder the rest of the world hates us, we completely disregard the way the rest of the world does things so we can do things our own less convenient way! But I don't have the time to figure out the Metric System, and I'm still gonna call the game soccer.

Like most Americans, I'm not a huge soccer fan, and I'm amazed at how popular the sport is internationally. The fans are certainly passionate! I'm sure everyone has seen footage of riots breaking out in soccer games. Pretty crazy. The World Cup is a major sporting event around the world, but here, it's no big deal. We may have mild interest when our teams are doing well, but other than that, we barely notice it. Super Bowl Sunday is practically a national holiday, but the World Cup is pretty much meaningless. Most Americans know about soccer players because of commercials or hearing about them through media outlets. American soccer star Mia Hamm is pretty well known here in the States, but only because she's been in a lotta commercials. Then there's David Beckham, the soccer star who the title of this movie refers to. The only reason why I know about him is because he's married to Victoria Adams (now Victoria Beckham), who was (or maybe she still is) a member of the British pop group the Spice Girls. This movie actually has a couple of songs from Posh Spice/Victoria Beckham in the soundtrack. It also has a couple of songs from another member of the group who went solo, the most talented one, Sporty Spice/Melanie C.

"Bend It Like Beckham" has a cast of mostly unknowns (to me, at least... this is a UK film, and maybe they're well known in the UK), but they all have lotsa charm. The two leads are Parminder K. Nagra (I've never seen her before) and Keira Knightley (she had a small role in "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace"... I believe she was one of the Queen's decoys), and they're both very good. Parminder K. Nagra plays the daughter of orthodox Sikh parents, and she has dreams of playing soccer, just like her hero, David Beckham. Her Indian parents forbid her from doing so, but she's a rebellious girl, so what follows is pretty obvious. Yeah, the movie is predictable, but entertaining. Nagra does a great job, and she has an expressive face that perfectly suits the character. Keira Knightley plays her best friend, and she idolizes America soccer player Mia Hamm the way Nagra idolizes David Beckham. Knightley is really good, too, and she turns in a likable performance. I can see her being a huge star, because she has lotsa talent and a very pretty face (it's sorta like a combination of Winona Ryder and Natalie Portman). That being said, the girl is so skinny, it's scary.

Anupam Kher and Shaheen Khan play Nagra's parents, and they're very good, and very funny. Even when they're frustrating to watch (their characters are very strict), they still manage to be likable. Same with Knightley's parents in the movie, as played by Frank Harper and Juliet Stevenson. All four actors who play the parents are people I've never seen before, but I liked them in this movie. This movie is very well acted. The only person I wasn't all that impressed by was the one actor I've seen before, and that's Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (he was "Chiron" in the dark Shakespeare movie, "Titus") as the girls' soccer coach. It's not that his acting was bad, he actually does a fine job, but he didn't seem right for the role.

"Bend It Like Beckham" was directed by Gurinder Chadha, a director I've never heard of before. Before this movie, she directed a film called "What's Cooking," a movie that critics seem to like, but I've never heard of it. With "Bend It Like Beckham," she did a good directing job, and she made the soccer stuff exciting. Unfortunately, the movie does drag a bit. I think 10 or 15 minutes coulda been shaved off, and it woulda been fine. The movie was just a little too long. It was still very entertaining, though. The screenplay was also written by Chadha, though she got some help from Paul Mayeda Berges (her husband, who also helped her write "What's Cooking") and Guljit Bindra (debut as writer for a film).

This isn't a movie that's gonna win a whole bunch of Oscars or anything, but it's a nice, entertaining comedy that I enjoyed. If you're in the mood for light, escapist fun, "Bend It Like Beckham" is the perfect film.

Scale of 1-10: 8

Sometimes I'm in the mood for light entertainment. Sure, I love movies that are intense and make me think, like "Irréversible" and "Eyes Wide Shut," there isn't enough of that out there. But a lotta times, I wanna see something that'll entertain me, make me happy, and won't require me to think too much. "Bend It Like Beckham" seemed like the perfect movie for that. Every review I read was very positive. Critics said it was sweet, funny, simple, enjoyable... exactly the kinda movie I've been wanting to see for a while. So I saw "Bend It Like Beckham," and I'm glad I did. It's a sweet-natured, lighthearted film that I really enjoyed.

This movie features a girls soccer team, and when I say "soccer," I mean no disrespect to those who call it "football." I'm an American, so I know it as soccer, though to be honest with you, I don't know why. If you ask me, American football should be called something else, because "football" really does seem more appropriate for the game of soccer. Then again, we yanks seem to do everything ass backwards. Like the Metric System, for instance. Everyone around the world uses the Metric System, which is logical, convenient, and simple. But not us, we have our own system of measurement, which is more complicated. No wonder the rest of the world hates us, we completely disregard the way the rest of the world does things so we can do things our own less convenient way! But I don't have the time to figure out the Metric System, and I'm still gonna call the game soccer.

Like most Americans, I'm not a huge soccer fan, and I'm amazed at how popular the sport is internationally. The fans are certainly passionate! I'm sure everyone has seen footage of riots breaking out in soccer games. Pretty crazy. The World Cup is a major sporting event around the world, but here, it's no big deal. We may have mild interest when our teams are doing well, but other than that, we barely notice it. Super Bowl Sunday is practically a national holiday, but the World Cup is pretty much meaningless. Most Americans know about soccer players because of commercials or hearing about them through media outlets. American soccer star Mia Hamm is pretty well known here in the States, but only because she's been in a lotta commercials. Then there's David Beckham, the soccer star who the title of this movie refers to. The only reason why I know about him is because he's married to Victoria Adams (now Victoria Beckham), who was (or maybe she still is) a member of the British pop group the Spice Girls. This movie actually has a couple of songs from Posh Spice/Victoria Beckham in the soundtrack. It also has a couple of songs from another member of the group who went solo, the most talented one, Sporty Spice/Melanie C.

"Bend It Like Beckham" has a cast of mostly unknowns (to me, at least... this is a UK film, and maybe they're well known in the UK), but they all have lotsa charm. The two leads are Parminder K. Nagra (I've never seen her before) and Keira Knightley (she had a small role in "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace"... I believe she was one of the Queen's decoys), and they're both very good. Parminder K. Nagra plays the daughter of orthodox Sikh parents, and she has dreams of playing soccer, just like her hero, David Beckham. Her Indian parents forbid her from doing so, but she's a rebellious girl, so what follows is pretty obvious. Yeah, the movie is predictable, but entertaining. Nagra does a great job, and she has an expressive face that perfectly suits the character. Keira Knightley plays her best friend, and she idolizes America soccer player Mia Hamm the way Nagra idolizes David Beckham. Knightley is really good, too, and she turns in a likable performance. I can see her being a huge star, because she has lotsa talent and a very pretty face (it's sorta like a combination of Winona Ryder and Natalie Portman). That being said, the girl is so skinny, it's scary.

Anupam Kher and Shaheen Khan play Nagra's parents, and they're very good, and very funny. Even when they're frustrating to watch (their characters are very strict), they still manage to be likable. Same with Knightley's parents in the movie, as played by Frank Harper and Juliet Stevenson. All four actors who play the parents are people I've never seen before, but I liked them in this movie. This movie is very well acted. The only person I wasn't all that impressed by was the one actor I've seen before, and that's Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (he was "Chiron" in the dark Shakespeare movie, "Titus") as the girls' soccer coach. It's not that his acting was bad, he actually does a fine job, but he didn't seem right for the role.

"Bend It Like Beckham" was directed by Gurinder Chadha, a director I've never heard of before. Before this movie, she directed a film called "What's Cooking," a movie that critics seem to like, but I've never heard of it. With "Bend It Like Beckham," she did a good directing job, and she made the soccer stuff exciting. Unfortunately, the movie does drag a bit. I think 10 or 15 minutes coulda been shaved off, and it woulda been fine. The movie was just a little too long. It was still very entertaining, though. The screenplay was also written by Chadha, though she got some help from Paul Mayeda Berges (her husband, who also helped her write "What's Cooking") and Guljit Bindra (debut as writer for a film).

This isn't a movie that's gonna win a whole bunch of Oscars or anything, but it's a nice, entertaining comedy that I enjoyed. If you're in the mood for light, escapist fun, "Bend It Like Beckham" is the perfect film.

Scale of 1-10: 8

Beckham ha aperto una scuola di calcio per bambini. Potrebbe essere un modo per farsi aprire le porte dell'Inter...

REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
England's captain David Beckham (C) smiles as he poses with children to open The David Beckham Academy in London November 28, 2005. Beckham opened his London soccer academy alongside the Millennium Dome on Monday, just a short distance from where he was born