For some this will be terrific, for most it's a fun twist on familiar sports and prison escape plots

Rating: 6/10 (1 June 2014)

Victory (1981)
A slow beginning leads not to a typical sports movie but to a parallel of a heist film. That is, this group of prisoners has to think of an unusual way to pull off a job— their escape from a Nazi prison camp. The method? A soccer match. It's ludicrous I suppose but it's fun, and there are enough turns of plot to keep you going whether you like light-hearted WWII films or sports films.
If Pele is the surprise star here, don't expect much of him on any level, as an actor or as a player. His screen time is brief and generally dull, oddly, though still fun. But Michael Caine is his usual dependable excellent self, here as a once-great soccer player now leading a team of prisoners. He is given permission to get the best players he can find in all the Nazi prisons, assembling a kind of uber-team of stragglers and has-beens.
The other actor of fame, Sylvester Stallone, plays what is almost a caricature—the American who won't fit in because he is so rebellious and righteous. And right, we hope. He eventually becomes a last-minute goalkeeper, and it's kind of hilarious and impressive (he's young but already ripped). His character is obviously more familiar with American football than the other kind, but don't let that stop an ambitious young fellow.
The movie is an odd mix of acting styles and it's a bumbling kind of plot at first, but it steadily builds itself into something to cheer about. The end will be a surprise, by the way, and is maybe the one shining moment where the film, as a bit of movie-making, steps out of the box.
The reviews on this site are all over the map here. My impression is that soccer fans have an automatic win-win on this one, and that the game is seen as fresh and heroic in a good way. If you don't like soccer in particular, the sport is just a lively device to work the larger plot. As a prison film or escape film this is way out of its league, sure it is, but it's still solid and inventive in its own small ways. When it gets so unlikely you have to groan, don't worry, there is a sense of beating the odds to every aspect of the plot, so why not?
As you can see, it's easy to enjoy this movie even if it's nothing to write home about. Fair enough.