Channing Tatum and the other men are simply too old for the roles

Rating: 8/10 (21 July 2006)

Look, this movie is funny, like "Porky's" and other movies of its type where men in their mid to late 20s play high school students, but lets face it, runway model Channing Tatum is simply too old and has too much muscle development to be believable as a high school boy. That out of the way, this movie's gender-bending premise is very good at ridiculing American attitudes about soccer. The idea of a girl posing as a teenage boy to play boy's soccer at some elite prep school with buffed up guys in their 20s is a wickedly ironic comment on how Americans view soccer as a sort of upper crust "semi-gay" sport. We all know red blooded and clean cut all American boys with any inclination to play the game wise up and move on to real sports like "football" by the time they reach the age mom doesn't have to drive them to practice in her minivan anymore. This eccentric and unique American fixation (like universal neonatal circumcision??) is contrasted with the rest of the world where soccer is the definitive and uncut male working class sport. Try going into a pub in Manchester UK and whispering soccer is for gay guys and girls and see if you get out alive. Ha Ha. This is especially ironic when you consider that good old Packers and Steelers bratwurst and beer Chevy pickup tailgate party American football is derived from rugby, a sport born on the playing fields of one of England's most elite prep schools. Cricket anyone? Maybe baseball instead.