The Reggae Boyz Saga

Photo Courtesy of Jairo Cajina

Rated Beegie-13 - Strong film content.

Everyone reading this has watched at least one superhero movie.  You know when this regular guy was just plain and average then one day something happens then he becomes a hero then starts to fight crime and beats up every little thief and murderer in sight. Well, the Reggae Boyz have been doing action movies for a while and it keeps everyone in suspense.

In the 1990 World Cup Campaign and others before, Jamaica was that average man who didn’t do anything spectacular. However, they started to pick up powers in the 94 campaign and they were getting better. They were able to beat the minor CONCACAF criminals (not calling any of those countries bad, just stick with the analogy) but you know when the hero faces the big bad guy and loses, that’s what happened. They weren’t able to beat the top dogs in their qualifying. However, just like when the hero loses and goes back to train and find strength, the Reggae Boyz did so and were able to beat the villains such as Honduras and Mexico to qualify for the 1998 France World Cup. It was the best movie ever.  However, the sequels have not lived up to the 1998 movie.

The 2002 film was a decent film but they didn’t beat the powerhouses U.S.A., Mexico and Costa Rica in the final battle. The 2006 film was utterly unbearable, let's leave it at that. The 2010 film started off well but then just became awful. The 2014 film was the closest to the 98 epic but fell short as the heroes couldn’t manage the heat. However, the "company" in charge of these films, the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) felt it needed a new director. The previous directors such as Carl Brown, Sebastio Lazaroni, Bora Minoknowhowtospellhislastname (I'm joking. It's Milu something. I kid, it's Milutinovic) and Theodore Whitmore just could not make a proper film. The JFF even brought back the successful 98 director Rene Simoes in 2008 but he was definitely a one hit wonder as his reboot crashed and burned very quickly. But the CEO of the JFF Horace Burrell decided to go for a German director, Winfried Schafer.

Schafer brought in a fresh new cast and wrote a new script. No more average lead actors like Dane Richards and  Luton Shelton along with a weak supporting cast. He toured Europe and started off fairly nicely in 2014 but there was a point when one villain, France, pummeled our heroes. It was so embarrassing. The movie made our hearts hurt but the director knew what he was doing. 

Our heroes won the Caribbean Cup in 2014, not convincingly but they did. They would travel to South America to face some of the biggest villains in the world, Argentina and Uruguay. Like the cartoons, we were saying “yikes”. We just hoped that they wouldn’t die. They didn’t. They stood and they fought against these mega villains. Bearing in mind they did lose those fights but they won the respect of the world, most importantly Jamaicans.

Schafer’s script only got better as they made the final of The Gold Cup, even beating their arch-nemesis, USA. Our heroes celebrated and we celebrated with them. The Mexicans spoiled the fun in the final, knocking out the Boyz but there was no shame. We were confident that this film would end greatly by the Boyz qualifying for Russia. It wouldn’t be that easy though.

A surprise villain, Nicaragua came to town. Everyone laughed because these guys didn’t look scary at all. Well, they gave us some good punches and we were almost down for the count. Our heroes got back up and gave Nicaragua some shots but the fight was over, for now. The Boyz had to fly to the villain's home in Managua (which sounds like flavoured water) to defeat their villain and move on. Darren Mattocks got the bruising on early and things seemed to be okay. But as time progressed our heroes looked dim. The World Cup dream looked over. 

Imagine watching Batman v Superman in 2016 and Batman dies in the first 15 minutes. Wouldn't that suck? Our heroes seemed to be done and dusted. However, the heroes don't usually die do they? Simon Dawkins flew out of nowhere and scored the vital goal to knock out Nicaragua once and for all. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The heroes could take a rest and come back to face their next set of villains in the next round of qualifying. 

Director Schafer's movie has been going pretty well so far despite all it's close calls and heart wrenching moments. The Boyz don't have long before they face Panama, Costa Rica and Haiti. Will this film be a success? We'll just have to wait and see after the short intermission. 

Grab some popcorn and comment if you'd like.