2006: Sixty Six (13th)

What else happened this year? Hmm... Was that when those Indian hotels got bombed? Katrina was late 2005, so I think the fallout for that was a while. I have so little recollection of a year I was an adult in. On a personal level, I got out of an abusive relationship with a woman as beautiful as she was evil. Go me.

What is the plot - in one sentence? A charmless young Jewish boy finds that he's going to have his Bar Mitzvah on the day of the 1966 World Cup final.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? He has one, and it's not very good. To say sorry, his Dad takes him to the match and all is well. We learn at the end that this is based on a true story, and all of the characters we met are shown with their real life counterparts. This is never a good idea - as your hideous family isn't going to look as good as professional actors do. Even if the dad is played by Eddie Mairsdon.  

What is the meaning of the title? It refers to the year, 1966, a year which every English person will tell you about until you leave the country. 

Here's the source for this picture. To be fair to this picture, you know exactly what you'll get from it.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? Na, I mean it won't age well because it's a piece of sacchirine shite and will be forgotten, there's nothing too controversial here.

Any thoughts? This was moderately amusing. It had a good, recognisable cast, and seemed to catch the time well, but was still nothing special. I also thought it was interesting that the 'England' team was represented with the Union jack, and not the George's Cross. Some mild discussion led to that not representing the 'England' team specifically until about the 1980s. It also had some interesting football CGI where they got to watch the match from the side, too, which was pretty impressive.

We're supposed to see parallels between the main kid and his brother and the kid's dad and his own brother (i.e. his uncle) - he's a forgotten sibling to a more charismatic other brother. We get it. The kid is annoying though, I know he's meant to be, and I don't think I'd bother going to his party either. His tantrum at the end of his Bar Mitzvah would have led to a slap at my house, instead of being taken to the match by his OCD dad.

Would you recommend this? Na, it could have been a bit funnier, and got too sentimental at the end (they play football in the back and he gives an incredibly maudlin voiceover about love and the like). This is pretty much the definition of unmemorable.

Final thoughts? I've lived all over the place. I've lived in the UK for a while. It's insane how much 1966 looms over the collective culture. For such a large country, with such a great history, I find it a little sad. Still, that's 2006 done, let's hope the next one is a bit better.

 You can click here if you want to see more of these... and don't want to break my poor heart.