HANDS OFF

Kick Off Reinterprets The Gay Soccer Film For A New Audience

In filmdom, it’s practically de rigueur for storylines to get recycled—the aging diva replaced by the conniving ingenue, the veteran cop with one last case to solve, the sexy teen who winds up falling for the nerdy classmate he initially made a cruel bet about.

One plot that’s been bouncing around Europe for a few years is that of the gay soccer squad facing a make-or-break match against a hetero team. Eleven Men Out presented the story from a Icelandic perspective, while Guys and Balls reworked it for German audiences.

Kick Off, the latest and craziest British comedy from outre writer/director Rikki Beadle-Blair (Metrosexuality), takes the theme one step further—ex-soldier Archer is the captain of a queer football club facing East London’s toughest, dirtiest team, the infamous Bethnal Reapers.

But on the other side of the pitch, the Reapers have their own problems—including a steroid-abusing defender, a cokehead midfielder and a narcissist striker with a ball-busting girlfriend. And if these clods get into one more violent clash, they’ll be kicked out of the league. Bend It Like Beckham this ain’t!

Kick Off debuts on iTunes, Amazon and other digital platforms on January 17.

Jump to 13 Comments

By: Dan Avery
On: Dec 17, 2011
Tagged: DVD, kick off, Movies, Rikki Beadle-Blair

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13 Comments

No. 1 · MikeE
that actually looks.. dreadful.

Dec 17, 2011 at 11:19 am · @Reply · Flag
No. 2 · frizzle65
I’m all about shirtless ballers but, this doesn’t look very good!!

Dec 17, 2011 at 11:22 am · @Reply · Flag
No. 3 · stevoj
this movie was actually pretty funny. it’s a little ridiculous and has a bit too much drama but if you are looking for a good laugh i would suggest giving it a watch

at least the scene when Archer rips off everyone’s shirt

Dec 17, 2011 at 11:42 am · @Reply · Flag
No. 4 · les
I think the BEST way to watch this is with the volume OFF

Dec 17, 2011 at 12:21 pm · @Reply · Flag
No. 5 · TommyOC
I’m a huge soccer fan and I really enjoyed Guys and Balls (made by a real director, starring recognizable German stars). But…

…this movie looks like trash. Wholly unenjoyable trash. The “chests:story” ratio was quite high… so I know the story doesn’t exist. If I want to be gratified by watching something that features shirtless men, I’ll watch porn.

And the music for the trailer? If there were an audible equivalent to Maalox, this would be it.

Dec 17, 2011 at 3:58 pm · @Reply · Flag
No. 6 · Interesting
The acting is really bad. Also, in this day and age, if you are going to do video (I am assuming this is video) you can do some really nice cinematography on a relatively small budget. Why do gay indie movies insist on looking they were filmed back in the 90s in terms of quality of production?

Dec 17, 2011 at 5:13 pm · @Reply · Flag
No. 7 · dhivyd
nice gays reply mail

Dec 18, 2011 at 3:44 am · @Reply · Flag
No. 8 · kylew
Why is the gay team a bunch of flaming queens? That’s somewhat annoying. And why are the tough guys all skinheads? Cheap stereotypes and lazy writing. Not an inspiring start. And from what I know even about sunday league soccer, that team would get eaten alive.

Dec 18, 2011 at 5:26 am · @Reply · Flag
No. 9 · Mike
Actually, I really enjoyed this film, as I have other Team Angelica Films such as Fit. I wish I had access to films like these as a teenager growing up, which is the primary purpose of the production company.

I find most US gay films appalling, and only yesterday I turned off Eating Out 4 after 10 mins.

There are great gay films from Europe including Summerstorm, Beautiful Thing and this film is one of them.

Dec 18, 2011 at 5:33 am · @Reply · Flag
No. 10 · Interesting
To put this in the same league as Summerstorm is a joke, right?

Dec 18, 2011 at 5:17 pm · @Reply · Flag
No. 11 · Mike UK · Member · 243 comments
this film is dire! this is what gay football (soccer) is all about!

http://www.vmfc.co.uk/index.php

Dec 18, 2011 at 5:58 pm · @Reply · Flag
No. 12 · Russ
It has like all the same actors as Fit. Which is also a movie with a lot of gay content and dancing.

Dec 19, 2011 at 9:07 pm · @Reply · Flag
No. 13 · Cam
This Film was ….interesting and that is an understatement. It had real potential but there were way too many sub plots in it (each character had their own sub plot) that you weren’t really able to follow and it did not make any sense . Nice actors , nice directing , nice filming but horrible story planning

Feb 24, 2012 at 3:08 am · @Reply · Flag