Opening on depressing images of Sydney's South West, Footy Legends leads the audience on a journey of self discovery, showing mateship and the true bond of a family, with the tale of an underdog sports team set up against all odds to become Footy Legends. Australian slang and euphemisms make footy legends identifiable as a true blue Australian hit, along the lines of Crocodile Dundee and The Castle. Aussie artists lend their music to the film which adds an extra dimension to the complexities of the story, leading it more into a Drama rather than a Comedy for which it may have been seen as. The Musicians include; Rose Tattoo, Shannon Noll, Hoodoo Gurus, Daryl Braithwaite & Hunters and Collectors. Multiculturalism is evident in the Yagoona team with Players coming from Vietnam, Lebanon, and the Pacific Islands along with White and Indigenous Australians; this allows Australians of all nationalities to enjoy this film. The only drawback is that footy stands for different codes in Australia, Footy is AFL in Victoria, SA and WA but in NSW footy means NRL, the title leaves a little confusion, but this allows the audience to substitute their own sport or hobby for footy.

A typical Hollywoodesque formula comedy/drama sports feel-good schmaltz - but this time from the usually more offbeat Aussies. Complete with an awful, overly sentimental soundtrack next to which even Coldplay seem lively and heavy. The female part of the cast is interesting/good, but the male part, which dominates due to the subject matter, is quite apathetic - which is weird considering that they all play Aussie-rules rugby; one would think they'd have more life in them than to constantly mope around, looking depressed. The movie uses all the clichés and plot-devices that there are in order to hopefully press all the "right" sob-buttons, which makes me wonder for whom this movie was made. Women? Well, I certainly don't see guys getting excited about this story, except if they're similarly goofy misfits like most of the rugby-playing protagonists here. We've got a girl with asthma, a semi-retarded gentle giant, an old man in a nursing home, a player's girlfriend in jail, unemployed bums and a drug-addict seeking a new chance in life, and then the obligatory big-match finale. You get the picture. Instead of watching this film, google "vjetropev 15 rule changes".

Anh Do's constant spruiking in the media about what a come-from-nothing, refugee, westy battler he is, which by the way is true, only serves as a cop out. Positioning himself to get away with making such a crap movie. While the background of struggling underdog is certainly there, make no mistake, the accolades and experience are certainly there too. Khoa was widely praised for his previous film, "The Finished People" for which he won the independent spirit award and was also named as "Young Australian Of The Year" and Anh was also "Stand Up Comedian Of The Year" a few years back and is an accomplished stand up comic. My question being that with all this industry cred and decent financial backing and casting... couldn't they have put together a kick butt film. Answer: Apparently not.

While The Wayan Brothers soil the cinema screens of the nation with their disgraceful suburban themed Little Man, here in Australia we have the Do Brothers, and their challenging, entertaining new suburban comedy drama FOOTY LEGENDS. These boys are actually 20-something Vietnamese refugee siblings who, with a micro budget and a sharp eye for wanting to create intelligent heartfelt films that resonate and inform are succeeding in Australian cinemas entertaining and delighting Australian audiences..... Their last film was the astonishing FINISHED PEOPLE a 'reality feature' that played like a documentary, about discarded young people living in a depressed suburb in outer western Sydney who felt that a life of success wealth and happiness was not for them, eking out a street existence on social security. Usually films like this are grinding misery but as a debut feature from the 'can Dos' it was a remarkable and applauded experience. FOOTY LEGENDS is about some happier people across the road who want to create a football team and win a prize. No new story platform here, but remember we are in Bowery Boys or FULL MONTY territory on the sports field in Australia instead. Ken Loach makes dramas about these type of people (KES perhaps) but in Oz we make it a heartwarming comedy. In FOOTY LEGENDS, with an oddball group of tubby clumsy boofy and lame pals and with the encouragement of a car as a prize, they get their wobbly act together to focus on winning something for the first time in any of their lives. It is a funny suburban film, modest and almost Ealing in it's lack of pretensions. It isn't crude and offensive (like Little Man) and does not go for violence or humiliation as comedy (like a dumb Sandler farce such as The Waterboy) These guys have had that done to them off-screen and so have progressed to making something of their aimless suburban lives. The Do Boys are on the up and up in Oz and you are easily able to enjoy this new sports film with it's heart and funnybone being shoved and jostled for 90 minutes. Genuine sports stars appear and the drama is anchored by familiar screen actors Peter Phelps and Claudia Carvan. FOOTY LEGENDS is a good new Australian movie that actually hopes and provides you with a good time. After the moronics of the American films mentioned above, and the cretinous skid-marks of some urban Australian films so far this century (You And Your Stupid Mate, Liquid Bridge, The Wannabees and the vile Wolf Creek) it is the ethnic and indigenous members of our community who are making the progress: Ten Canoes and now FOOTY LEGENDS. Go Do Boys!