Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 7, 2008

Not being a soccer fan, the Cosmos phenomenon had no impact on me at the time nor does this energetic film change that opinion.

| Original Score: B- | Dec 3, 2006

mostly I'm stricken with nostalgia for '70s fashion and Marv Albert's hairdo

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 13, 2006

An energetically told tale, with eccentric characters to spare and a nostalgically bittersweet tone.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 25, 2006

With just a little tweaking ... could be reworked in a Christopher Guest-style mockumentary of swollen egos and corporate whimsy.

Full Review | Original Score: 83/100 | Aug 25, 2006

Packed with observations and recrimations, many of the latter aimed at or by Chinaglia, which makes for some gossipy entertainment.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 19, 2006

... the film is bursting with astonishing old footage, hip tunes, vivid interviews and you-couldn't- make-it-up anecdotes.

Full Review | Aug 13, 2006

... treats its audience like a bunch of attention deficit disorder cases.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 13, 2006

... accomplishes the minor miracle of making you mourn a sports team you likely never knew existed in the first place.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Aug 13, 2006

Once in a Lifetime, which relies on interviews and archival footage, may not be a great documentary, but it certainly gets its points across.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Aug 12, 2006

Once in a Lifetime is a marvelous primer on this remarkable event in soccer history, most likely never to be seen again.

| Original Score: B+ | Aug 11, 2006

It's a rags-to-riches story that shows how American money and imagination revolutionized not just a team, but the entire sport of soccer, back then and still to this day.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 10, 2006

Once in a Lifetime is riveting cinema for at least an hour, after which it starts to feel a bit like thumbing through a scrapbook. But American soccer fans -- and those interested in the business of sports -- will eat it up.

| Aug 5, 2006

New York went bust, so did the team, yet scattered seeds for smarter soccer growth later.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 4, 2006

Once in a Lifetime would have benefited greatly from historical and outside perspective, but the story on screen is such a kick that even monotone narrator Matt Dillon gets caught up in the excitement.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 28, 2006

It has some funny scenes and wild characters who reflect back on the glory years, where the clashes of ego were as legendary as Pelé's amazing bicycle-kick goals.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 28, 2006

The movie is ultimately too long and too this-no-name-player- was-traded-for-that- no-name-player detailed for casual viewers.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 27, 2006

Essentially an extended cable special.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 22, 2006

How that dream was realized and what factors brought it and its league to a horrific crash scarcely a decade later is the intriguing drama that directors Paul Crowder and John Dower are able to reconstruct.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 22, 2006

An energetic and often enjoyable documentary, particularly for soccer fans.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 21, 2006