Review of When Saturday Comes

Introduction

There haven`t been too many films about football until recent times. Escape to Victory is probably the most famous, and certainly the most repeated on TV. There seem to be plenty of football films about now though, with 2000`s There`s Only One Jimmy Grimble recently released on DVD and Mike Bassett, England Manager about to appear in UK cinemas.

When Saturday Comes was released in 1996, as "Euro 96" fever was beginning to sweep across England. Sean Bean landed the leading role after previously appearing on the big screen as a Bond villain in 1995`s Goldeneye. Nice to see Emily Lloyd back on the big screen too, as she hasn`t had a decent role since 1987`s Wish You Were Here.

Video

We get a pretty average 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer. It`s rather ugly during the opening scenes, with dust, dirt and scratches visible. It does improve as the film goes along, but the next fleck is usually not far away.

Visually the film is very subdued, though I am assuming that this is mostly intentional given the "grim up north" outlook of the film. There`s snow, fog and rain on show, and I don`t remember seeing the sun shining once!

Audio

A DD2.0 surround audio track which is rather uninspiring. There`s very little surround action, although there are one or two moments of ambient sound that impress.

As you might expect for a film set in Sheffield, most of the music comes from Joe Elliott, of Def Leppard fame. It fits the film quite well.

Features

A washed-out looking 4:3 trailer, which is literally the whole film condensed down into about two minutes. If you`re in a hurry, just watch this instead of the main feature.

Conclusion

When Saturday Comes is a very predictable film, full of stereotyped characters, locations and situations. It`s very easy to make lazy comparisons to The Full Monty because there are so many similarities between the films. The biggest difference is that The Full Monty was funny, whereas When Saturday Comes is just tedious. If the film is supposed to appeal to football fans then they should have got some of their footballing facts correct too!

The DVD itself is pretty average, with average picture and sound and a distinct lack of extras. Given that this was a low-budget film, we were unlikely to see much effort going into the DVD, and that`s certainly true here.

The end credits stress that the film is not linked to the football publication "When Saturday Comes". I`d suggest that you buy that instead of this film, as it is far more entertaining.