Next Goal Wins is a generic sports underdog movie that has enough script issues that I struggle to get the movie to a decent review. But it pulls off a late game miracle… which is to say it delivers the exact thing a generic underdog sports movie needs to.

Certainly this is a unique underdog setting. American Samoa’s football team had the most humiliating game imaginable – a 31 to 0 loss (and, no, that’s not in American football… that’s soccer). They bring in a new coach (Michael Fassbender) to help them hopefully score just one goal.

As an underdog sports movie, Taika Waititi knows his film history… which is why it’s baffling the film skips over some of the important bits of this type of movie. We’re suddenly told the coach has come to love the team and how it changes him… but we never see much evidence of that (and, indeed, his later attitude disproves it) Or how most such sports movies are made up of quirky individuals who learn and grow… there’s really only one player who gets any attention. Most of the rest are interchangeable.

It takes some cheap shortcuts on its way to a surprisingly good final game where the rah-rah underdog sports movie finally grows a heart. It saves the movie from a lower score, that’s for sure.

This is an uneven movie that I’m charitably giving a decent score. I laughed a decent amount and felt a little inspiration by the end. Which is the bare minimum.

Score: 75