barberic-695-574135 Add this one to your movie collection, it´s well worth watching. Hard to believe that the story is actually "loosely" based on true events. Much of the success of this movie is down to the brilliant acting from the main characters. This one touches all the emotions. Will we be watching it again, absolutely.

colinmetcalfe Another almost there movie. It is let down by the fact that it is meant to be a comedy, but it is just not funny enough. Everything else is bang on except perhaps some of the characterisations, the only one I really warmed to was the blind rabbi and his dog (which produces most of the laughs!) I'm not from this world and it seems to really enjoy this film, it has to strike a chord. Well there was no resonance for me, I had to be made to laugh just using what was on the screen.Regarding the laugh count I think the makers realised this was low too as demonstrated by the: 'what's that drink? It's a bloody Mary. Alright I was only asking' gag. Smacks of desperation I'm afraid.Even so the nice warm ending was worth waiting for.

kimmerie-1 If you picture Helena Bonham Carter as a Jewish mother from the 1960's, beehive and all, that should be enough to make run to see Sixty Six.Sixty six is the year. Bernie Reubens is the kid. The 13 year old kid to be exact. Bernie's the awkward, picked-on kid, the one living in the shadow of his popular older brother. The kid whose only luck is bad.Lo and behold in his religious (Hebrew) classes, he learns that his impending Bar Mitzvah is the event that will change all that. For one day Bernie Reubens would be the center of the universe.The quirky boy makes his Bar Mitzvah his obsession. In the backyard garage, he has a table set up, more like a shrine devoted to things Bar Mitzvah. Catering menus, a place setting, pictures, seating charts, everything to make this day his perfect one.There's one glitch.The World Cup falls on the same day. And, England could qualify for the finals. No one would come to Bernie's Bar Mitzvah if this happened.Bernie makes it his singleminded mission to prevent England from competing in the finals. How he tries to do this is plain hysterical. Let's just say that there's some hocus pocus involved and tons of laughs.There's another glitch. Bernie's dad's career takes a bad financial turn. Don't get me started about the father character. Played by actor Eddie Marsan, the odd elder Reubens is a cartoon-like character with amazing comedic timing. In a Mr. Magoo kind of way.If I said what happens to Bernie is comedy of errors, I would be understating it. From bad to worse, and bad again, Bernie's day isn't looking like his dream Bar Mitzvah. But some bittersweet things happen between he and his dad. Enough to tug your heart. And, tug again.Almost never have I been to a movie that made me laugh during the introduction and then tear up at the end. Even the credits are worth watching since the actors' names are superimposed over film footage of an actual '60's Bar Mitzvah, which happens, I'm assuming, to be that of the director's older brother. His was Bernie's dream day.I only collect the odd movie DVD from the movies that I adore. As soon as this becomes available, it's mine. I'll have a Sixty Six party. Prerequisite, you must be born before that year.Supposedly, Sixty Six is based on the director, Paul Weilland's life. I know some Brits who remember the World Cup of 1966 with special affection. And, I personally remember a variety of awkward boys confronting their manhood at many a Bar Mitzvah. (where I smoked my fist cigarette in the synagogue bathroom.) Then there's the dad stuff...more tugs. Go see it!

scruffyharry I was expecting a Jewish humour kind of film (like Jack Rosenthal's Barmitzvah Boy all those years ago). There *is* some humour, and some Jewish in-jokes, but mainly I found the film to be very sad. Like some other recent films about losers (e.g. Brassed Off) the pathos overwhelms the humour; contrast Full Monty, Billy Elliott, where the crapness of the situation is still treated humorously. I thought the film lacked Jewish characters and situations I could identify from my own childhood (where were the British vs Jewish conflicts, and the anti-semitism?) and I didn't like the rabbi (stereotype with that Ron Moody accent).What *was* good, I thought, was the attention to detail by the props department. I was 13 in 1966 (in fact my best friend's barmitzvah WAS on that exact date ... nothing like in the film though: plenty of guests turned up, though quite a few snuck out into the car park during the game) and a few things caught my eye, notably the duffle bag, and the kids playing a horse-racing game whose name I forget which involves stretching a sheet of canvas over the table and turning a handle to make the horses "run" ... Robledo or something. And of course all the old cars.