Also saw it at the Swan. Enjoyed around two-thirds of the film, thought it dipped in the middle and became quite boring (a fair proportion of the audience, who seemed to make straight for the bar/exit, seemed to agree). Found the final twenty minutes or so quite emotional.
It lacked a bit of a narrative hook. I was interested to watch as a Wycombe fan, but I’m not sure Akinfenwa’s infectious personality alone is enough to base a documentary on.
Enjoyed it for Akinfenwa, but generally thought there was too much of his brothers and various meetings involved. Half way through, twigged it was more about his post-career rather than everything before, they moved through the interesting bits about an 18 year old going to Lithuania in about 10 seconds, but we got minutes of him sat around with various talent managers.
Couldn't believe how amateur it looked either, like they had no footage apart from grainy stuff of his time at Wycombe.
Agreed with the above - felt like they weren't really sure what story they were really trying to tell so ended up throwing a bit of everything at it. The timelines were all over the place, did a quick canter through his career and ended up talking about the Wembley penality/Whatsapp moment with Wimbledon but then suddenly back talking about Swansea.
Not at all my area of expertise but if it were me then I'd have done his football career as the underlying narrative/timeline, broken up with the non football stuff. Think that would've given it a bit more structure.
Also agree that the lack of footage was a bit odd. Other than the changing room chat there was nothing which was particularly insightful into his time at Wycombe behind the scenes. He mentioned getting the message from Klopp after the play-off win but then didn't even show it - it is on his social media so surely they had the rights to use it?
Overall, a little disappointing but enjoyable enough. Bayo is very watachable which helps but just a bit let down by the production.
I love Bayo and his whole attitude is inspiring. So 90 minutes of Bayo is good for me. As a film production it was a bit year 11 media studies.
I assume there was no budget to buy much match footage. I guess you have to pay the EFL or someone. So that was crappy.
I have no idea who the other Beast Mode guy is so what the ? was that interview about?
The highlight was definitely the Bloomfield, Bayo, GA chat.
As a Wycombe fan and a Bayo fan its a 4 star show. As someone who has no idea who he is I doubt if you will get past 5 minutes. As Dr Mark Kermode always says the trick to documentaries is to make you care about a subject you have no interest in.
Yeah, I thought it was a mixed bag to be honest, but I understand as others have already said that they're trying to build a general picture of him (and with a view to building up to his post-football career), and that giving his time at WWFC more focus would have given it a lot more "niche" appeal...
I'd probably give it a "6/10 but watch it anyway because it's Akinfenwa" rating. Plus I got it free as part of Amazon Prime so pretty churlish to complain (even though I usually manage to anyway).
Yeah some of the footage looked a bit desperate too.
When the 3 Akinfenwa's essentially "interviewed" KSI - it felt a bit like they were using KSI's celeb status to gain recognition. Why are they interviewing KSI on a documentary about Bayo?
It desperately lacked some narration or signposting.
Some sections felt quite well shot but it just didn’t hang together as a coherent documentary film.
Felt like it had been made by someone used to making 5 min YouTube videos and who didn’t even consider that someone might actually watch the full 90 mins.
Exactly this, and it may appeal to the younger generation because of it but a bit of tale telling and scene setting would have helped.
He comes across so well that it's fine, great for his, and our fans but not sure people who don't know him would get much. The Sergio film is a much rounder story. Def suffers from not being able to show much football.
I didn’t include any comments on Wednesday evening when I simply said ‘yes’ to @thecatwwfc’s opening question because I couldn’t immediately frame any kind of constructive response at such a late hour.
I still find it difficult, not least because, being somewhat hard of hearing, I struggled to hear a fair bit of the dialogue. I’m becoming dependent on sub-titles for quite a few TV programmes, including even Alan Yentob’s excellent “Imagine” series of biographies.
Quite a few sections of the documentary were well outside my own spheres of interest but then, as the resident ancient, that’s hardly surprising ! I enjoyed the closing scenes in the dressing room with Blooms and Gareth. Found that very moving.
Struggled with the brief Q & A session, for the same reason as I struggled with the documentary dialogue. It was a shame that the three brothers didn’t use mics. Wondered who the gentleman was (Steve) who occupied the majority of the session. I asked someone if it was ‘our very own’ Steve Brown but they didn’t know.
I was sat in the middle tier & found the Q&A a bit frustrating TBH. Q&As were limited to the lower tier of friends, VIPs & invited guests to ask as I believe that was the criteria to be allowed near the front. As such the Q's were a bit banal and not very engaging for me personally. Like many others the documentary wasn't very exciting, lacked direction & very amateurish. I had a similar feel when I read his autobiography. When I looked across at my 18 year old son he appeared to be playing games on his phone half the time, which kind of begged the question: was there a target audience this was aimed at? I only really went to support the man himself and for what he had done for our football club. Can't see me watching it again on Prime.
Comments
Yes
Saw the premiere at the Swan.
Also saw it at the Swan. Enjoyed around two-thirds of the film, thought it dipped in the middle and became quite boring (a fair proportion of the audience, who seemed to make straight for the bar/exit, seemed to agree). Found the final twenty minutes or so quite emotional.
It lacked a bit of a narrative hook. I was interested to watch as a Wycombe fan, but I’m not sure Akinfenwa’s infectious personality alone is enough to base a documentary on.
Enjoyed it for Akinfenwa, but generally thought there was too much of his brothers and various meetings involved. Half way through, twigged it was more about his post-career rather than everything before, they moved through the interesting bits about an 18 year old going to Lithuania in about 10 seconds, but we got minutes of him sat around with various talent managers.
Couldn't believe how amateur it looked either, like they had no footage apart from grainy stuff of his time at Wycombe.
I enjoyed it. Some of the comments above are fair, but my family found it inspiring and I’m glad it was made.
Agreed with the above - felt like they weren't really sure what story they were really trying to tell so ended up throwing a bit of everything at it. The timelines were all over the place, did a quick canter through his career and ended up talking about the Wembley penality/Whatsapp moment with Wimbledon but then suddenly back talking about Swansea.
Not at all my area of expertise but if it were me then I'd have done his football career as the underlying narrative/timeline, broken up with the non football stuff. Think that would've given it a bit more structure.
Also agree that the lack of footage was a bit odd. Other than the changing room chat there was nothing which was particularly insightful into his time at Wycombe behind the scenes. He mentioned getting the message from Klopp after the play-off win but then didn't even show it - it is on his social media so surely they had the rights to use it?
Overall, a little disappointing but enjoyable enough. Bayo is very watachable which helps but just a bit let down by the production.
I love Bayo and his whole attitude is inspiring. So 90 minutes of Bayo is good for me. As a film production it was a bit year 11 media studies.
I assume there was no budget to buy much match footage. I guess you have to pay the EFL or someone. So that was crappy.
I have no idea who the other Beast Mode guy is so what the ? was that interview about?
The highlight was definitely the Bloomfield, Bayo, GA chat.
As a Wycombe fan and a Bayo fan its a 4 star show. As someone who has no idea who he is I doubt if you will get past 5 minutes. As Dr Mark Kermode always says the trick to documentaries is to make you care about a subject you have no interest in.
Manchild!
Rather than the exceptionally grown up, mature world we all exist in, animatedly chatting about blokes kicking a ball about 🤣
Yeah, I thought it was a mixed bag to be honest, but I understand as others have already said that they're trying to build a general picture of him (and with a view to building up to his post-football career), and that giving his time at WWFC more focus would have given it a lot more "niche" appeal...
I'd probably give it a "6/10 but watch it anyway because it's Akinfenwa" rating. Plus I got it free as part of Amazon Prime so pretty churlish to complain (even though I usually manage to anyway).
Yeah some of the footage looked a bit desperate too.
When the 3 Akinfenwa's essentially "interviewed" KSI - it felt a bit like they were using KSI's celeb status to gain recognition. Why are they interviewing KSI on a documentary about Bayo?
We should have a thread called "Bayo Watch", as it's inevitable he's going to pop up in all manner of weird and wonderful places going forward.
Good shout. Can we change it?
He was promoting coastal safety the other day.
I’m sure they mentioned that it was the KSI ‘Akinfenwa is beast’ video that really kicked off Bayo’s fame?
It desperately lacked some narration or signposting.
Some sections felt quite well shot but it just didn’t hang together as a coherent documentary film.
Felt like it had been made by someone used to making 5 min YouTube videos and who didn’t even consider that someone might actually watch the full 90 mins.
Exactly this, and it may appeal to the younger generation because of it but a bit of tale telling and scene setting would have helped.
He comes across so well that it's fine, great for his, and our fans but not sure people who don't know him would get much. The Sergio film is a much rounder story. Def suffers from not being able to show much football.
I didn’t include any comments on Wednesday evening when I simply said ‘yes’ to @thecatwwfc’s opening question because I couldn’t immediately frame any kind of constructive response at such a late hour.
I still find it difficult, not least because, being somewhat hard of hearing, I struggled to hear a fair bit of the dialogue. I’m becoming dependent on sub-titles for quite a few TV programmes, including even Alan Yentob’s excellent “Imagine” series of biographies.
Quite a few sections of the documentary were well outside my own spheres of interest but then, as the resident ancient, that’s hardly surprising ! I enjoyed the closing scenes in the dressing room with Blooms and Gareth. Found that very moving.
Struggled with the brief Q & A session, for the same reason as I struggled with the documentary dialogue. It was a shame that the three brothers didn’t use mics. Wondered who the gentleman was (Steve) who occupied the majority of the session. I asked someone if it was ‘our very own’ Steve Brown but they didn’t know.
I was sat in the middle tier & found the Q&A a bit frustrating TBH. Q&As were limited to the lower tier of friends, VIPs & invited guests to ask as I believe that was the criteria to be allowed near the front. As such the Q's were a bit banal and not very engaging for me personally. Like many others the documentary wasn't very exciting, lacked direction & very amateurish. I had a similar feel when I read his autobiography. When I looked across at my 18 year old son he appeared to be playing games on his phone half the time, which kind of begged the question: was there a target audience this was aimed at? I only really went to support the man himself and for what he had done for our football club. Can't see me watching it again on Prime.