Saipan 2025/2026 by AverageMansReviews

Saipan 2025/2026 by AverageMansReviews

Review Time

Warning: there is flashing effects/colourful effects/medical/references to race and there will be some censored adult language references.

Republic of Ireland 2002 World Cup journey didn't exactly go smoothly: briefly; this film focuses on the infamous/legendary breakdown between Manchester United & Republic of Ireland Captain Roy Keane [Younger: Zachary Murdiff/Older: Éanna Hardwicke:] he has always been a highly dedicated football/soccer player, that has demanded the best from himself and those around him and the surrounding components to achieve this. Mick McCarthy [Steve Coogan:] he has put the kit on many years ago to represent the Republic of Ireland, but nowadays is the manager of the national and my reputation is a firm but fair manager/coach.

Generally speaking: the storyline/script; we get some exposition character developments on Keane's as a young child and onwards, the framework and pacing in conjunction with the artistic visions and action are broadly speaking good, as we have this countdown to the World Cup, real-life images of these events of that time in history, some images have been adapted/interpreted with these performers in them and the action; being football/soccer obviously. But there are some occasions where, it can also be seen as tacky and of low budget, which as you will see later on is not the case and this film goes on for roughly 90 minutes

Comedy, character developments and performances, we have a moment of comedy where the Irish squad decides to set up Keane to receive cheese sandwiches instead of his usual breakfast of egg on toast or something to that effect, from an overview perspective the character developments of the surrounding characters and their performances are good for what they are; but that is not our focus point of this movie.

The character developments of Roy Keane the fully grown one; for maybe 10 minutes of his opening section for his Irish accent is lacking and then suddenly it comes through loud and clear, he doesn't really look like Keane; but Hardwicke really does absolutely 110% carry this film with is authentic mindset personality, mannerisms basically everything that made Keane; Keane; I want to make this crystal clear if the next section wasn't so bad, this project based on the performance from Hardwicke would have ensured this title would have been in the mixed section of my marking system.

But Steve Coogan as Mick McCarthy is the worst performance I have ever seen him do; at no point does he actually make any effort to embody McCarthy; you see McCarthy has a very distinctive rural and down to earth speech pattern, language and tone; it is one of those voices that as someone that you interested in football/soccer, once you have heard his voice enough in one occasion it would be quite difficult to forget how he speaks and communicates, so what we are left with is basically this performance of Coogan performing as Coogan that couldn't be bothered to at minimum half posterior his way through this performance and man there is one particular scene in this project that he just completely sucks the energy out of this crucial point of events; where Keane/Hardwicke goes off on one big-time and trust me when I say you will know precisely when it happens; the difference between character developments and performance levels in this one sequence of events; couldn't be much more wider than Coogan staying on earth whilst Hardwicke is standing on the moon, I hope Coogan didn't get paid too much for this role? Basically I hope it was a performance related pay kind of deal, where he could only put in perhaps only 2% of effort to match his contract for this role, because that would explain a lot and likewise just for the record Coogan also looks nothing like McCarthy either.

This film receives: 2/10, this film is poor; I can't believe this film had a very substantial budget of £4.5 million, what precisely did they spend the money on? Because it only recouped/box office takings of £772,281, I mean if you are interested in football/soccer it is well worth a look as it covers this particular story from beginning to endand Roy Keane was and is absolutely right about this situation; this was and is completely unacceptable for an international team to go for this and just for the record I am not Irish; and the same that Keane wasn’t wrong, there are some extra bits and pieces and yes this film does have some awards accredited to its name such as; 1 Winner Irish Film and Television Awards 2026; IFTA Award Best Actor in a Lead Role - Film Éanna Hardwicke and 12 Nominees; from the same award ceremony/event Best Actor in a Lead Role - Film Steve Coogan