Ronaldo (2015) Reviews

• enlightening

  hangarra2015-12-03

  i never fully understood why Portugal never could do better with the best player in the world than we once did without him. up until now. hands down to ronaldo for creating the mindset needed to become what he is today. That being said, he simply drowned in is created and self induced idea that he is a demigod. In the entire documentary not one single reference to a teammate. Instead only subtle accusations that the team is not as good as him. They don't have the talent he does, the motivation he does, the belief he does, the endurance to pain he does. Boy it must suck to be in the same team as this guy. We win praise me, we lose its your fault. You can have the best player in the world in the team, and if it is ronaldo you are sure the get the absolute most out of 1 guy all season, but you are also sure not to have the most out of the other 10 because of him. maybe 1 day he will realize that some people don't like him nearly as much as they like the money he gets them, and that for a man to be truly great he cant be out grown by his ego. In the end, i was left feeling kinda sorry for him. although I'm sure that getting in on one of the 30 sports car sitting in his garage (that he so smoothly used his son to show us), is all it takes to make him feel great about himself.

• A very choreographed look at Ronaldo.

  charlton-056272015-11-11

  Whilst this was fairly watchable, it didn't tell us anymore about Ronaldo as a person than we already know. In fact, he and his agent Jorge Mendes came off even more out of touch with reality, especially the latter. His agent portrays Ronaldo as if he is the greatest person ever to walk the earth, the gushing admiration was noticeably cringe worthy towards the end of the movie, when he makes a speech after they have finished a family dinner about how Ronaldo is the greatest sportsman and person around. Even Ronaldo's family are quick to shout give him an Oscar. It's no wonder with Ronaldo surrounding himself with Mendes from the age of 16 why he became as arrogant as he is. I thought the only true characters we got to see were his mother and son. I felt sorry for his mother as she has clearly not yet come to terms with losing her husband. You can see also the pressure she faces when Ronaldo plays. I think his desire to want to be recognised as better than Messi has really got to her. There is one point where Ronaldo says it's just a game to her on the phone, but this is after he opens the movie with "winning is everything to me" He contradicts himself a good few times throughout the movie. What can't be questioned is that he clearly loves his son. His son comes across as a very normal and honest kid. There is one point where Ronaldo talks to another father outside the school as he is picking his son up, and as they walk away Ronaldo remarks on the man's stature, to which his son replies "bigger than you". Ronaldo then quickly adds "but Daddy is stronger", as if he was threatened and needed to prove his dominance over others to his son. Also, there is a part where he asks his son which car is missing, like this was a normal test of intelligence for a child... It showed this is not someone who you can relate to. What I got also from Ronaldo is that he expects his son to become almost a replica of him, hence the name Cristiano Junior and the way you can see he wants him to become a footballer, like he expects he will live up to his standards, which is unfair on the boy. As a person you can gage he is not that understanding of others and sees things very much as black and white. This was highlighted by what happened with his dad. He said the biggest regret was that his dad could not see how he turned out, which is fair enough- but he said I wished I had another dad and I don't care why he became an alcoholic, which to me shows he fails to realise that not everyone has the same mindset in life as he does and can go down the wrong paths for whatever reason. What was never seen in this movie was a true look at a Ronaldo who suffers through the bad times. They focused on the injury he had at the world cup, but in terms of their exit, it failed to show his reaction to their elimination for an extended period. All that was seen was him getting into a taxi and saying how he needed to go on holiday. He also blamed their elimination purely on Portugal's team and his injury, failing to admit he missed many good chances against the USA and Ghana, which could have put them through. There is never at any point any self criticism. He does not portion any of the blame on himself for things at any point not just footballing wise, but in all aspects. There was also no mention of his break up with his ex girlfriend in the movie and it showed nothing of her, considering they were dating for a some time over which it was filmed. There was a fleeting mention of her but nothing else. In terms of his rivalry with Messi, I would say the obsession with manifests itself in the movie more than ever. The film makes no secret of his disappointment at seeing Messi winning four years in a row, which is to be expected; but this was one of the first things you see at the start, all but confirming this is what football for him is all about. Whilst he goes on to say he says he sees Messi as more of a person now, I think that stems from Ronaldo winning the last two Ballon D'ors. Had Messi won both, I think there wouldn't have even been a movie and he certainly would not be talking about Messi in a more positive light. It's good he has not taught his son that Messi is someone he sees as his rival, but you can figure out Messi is never far from his and his agents thoughts. Overall, I can't say the movie endeared me to Ronaldo anymore than before. There was not enough of a connection formed with him to make you think this is a person who actually is quite humble and is not afraid to show himself at his worst. He was very wrong to claim the movie is an honest look at how he is, because you can see it's not. He has some good points shown, but the overriding theme is a huge ego and unhealthy obsession to be the best.

• A marketing ploy with almost no authenticity

  dannyritawedding2015-11-13

  These types of documentaries, i.e. behind the scenes with someone of note over a defining period of their life, is often hugely entertaining and insightful. Not this one. 'Ronaldo' is a pure piece of marketing to be sold to Ronaldo fans. There's insight into the issues surrounding and defining his family, specifically his brother, mother and late father, however Ronaldo is portrayed as the demi-God with few, if any, personal issues. Indeed the film intimates that he is the salvation for everyone in his family, specifically his mother who states that she thanks God that she didn't go through with the abortion she planned when pregnant with Ronaldo. Weird. I found his devotion to his son admirable however it seems the beginning of a very unhealthy path in that Ronaldo Jr already seems to have his future mapped out - to follow in his father's footprints. Indeed, the whole controversy around Jr's conception/birth mother (a mystery) was not addressed at all. In terms of football, this film epitomizes the issues with professional sport. There is no mention of the value of teamwork, selflessness and placing the team above the individual - the tone here is that Ronaldo is the Saviour and no one else matters. Overall Ronaldo came across as driven, single-minded, deluded, selfish, arrogant and, most tellingly of all, permanently self-conscious. He might be incredible on the field but off it he comes across as someone living with a massive dissonance between who he presents himself to be and who he really is within. And for that reason I'm left feeling sad for him.

• A wasted opportunity to show us what we really wanted to see from a Documentary on one of the most successful Footballers of all time.

  MUFCOK2016-06-07

  Being a lifelong United fan, I had always had a soft spot for Ronaldo even if he did leave us and go on to be even more successful for that Spanish circus. He did remarkable things for us and it was always clear he was to leave us for Madrid, it wasn't a question of if, it was a question of when. Over recent years my soft spot for him has dwindled, of course you cannot question his ability and professionalism, he is a fantastic player who can do fantastic things. Of late though he seems to have become a parody of himself, he's always had that arrogance and it is warranted, he's that good he can carry that trait and pulls it off. Over the past few years though it has gone to new extremes, when he celebrated over the top when scored the 4th goal in a 4-1 Champions League win a few years back yet hardly joined in the celebrations of the much more important equalizing goal or the second goal, simply because he has no part in them. That is just one example of how he has gone too far with his arrogance, this 'documentary' is on another level yet again though. The opening scene shows Messi winning Ballon D'or after Ballon D'or, Ronaldo speaking over this essentially spits his dummy out, traumatised and heartbroken. This sets the tone, Ronaldo doesn't care about team glory if he doesn't have the personal, individual glory to go with it. Winning the Best Player in the World award is all he wants, his success within teams is nowhere near as important as that to him, and in a team sport, that is a really negative, delusional trait to have. Its labelled a documentary but its hardly that, its essentially a VLOG or Ronaldo's year leading up to his Ballon D'or award, covering the world cup and the Champions League final. Sadly we get to see minimal back story from his child hood, Lisbon or Manchester United years. He touches on these times but we get no depth to it and we are not shown anything new or interesting. Nobody talks directly down the camera, instead we have Ronaldo narrating scenes of himself being vain and obnoxious or filming of his life in his home which gets repetitive from the 1st minute as he doesn't show us anything important at all. The film seems to advertise his Son just as much as it does himself, the scenes with his Son are somehow all about Ronaldo as well. 'Drink that drink and you will get strong arms like Daddy', he then flexes his biceps. Yawn. Or when he gets his Son to do 5 sit ups, only for Ronaldo to then start working out. His Mother features heavily in this film and she seems much more humble and down to earth. However Jorge Mendes, Ronaldo's agent is also featured often and he is a close runner with Ronaldo for most arrogant man on the planet. What a slime ball he is, and the sucking up to Ronaldo that he does is some of the most cringe worthy things I have ever had to witness. One scene that completely epitomises Ronaldo Is when he opens his Garage, which is bigger than the average house, to show his Son that one of his cars is missing as it is having some work done. Ronaldo's Son is then forced to guess which one is missing, 'The Rolls, The Porsche, The Ferrari?' his Son guesses as he walks around the garage surrounded by super cars. 'No' says Ronaldo, 'The one that goes even faster than that'. How can you even film that and not feel like a complete and utter narcissistic moron? Another thing we have to endure is his inability to take any blame for his actions. His never criticises himself once during the whole documentary, he genuinely believes that he is faultless and failures are not down to his ability but rather his team mates, injuries or other irrelevant factors. His unhealthy desire to be the best at everything he does is choreographed perfectly in this movie, everything is done dramatically and with utmost bias towards him and his career. There are some positives though, I liked to see his house, his lifestyle, private jets and behind the scenes at award shows. His general arrogance often annoyed me, but looking past that and seeing how these multi-millionaires live is quite surreal. The scene where his Son spots Messi and is star struck is a great scene as it shows us how lucky we are to have these two great footballers playing at the same time in the same era. Overall the movie offers nothing of great interest to the average football fan or even fans of Ronaldo. It will of course be lapped up by the teenage fan boys, making him a ton of money in the process. It would have been nice to see a documentary which shows us his past, gets in touch with his emotions more and provides more depth to his life. Instead it is simply a 90 minute video of Ronaldo telling us how he wants to always be the best and showing us how flash his lifestyle is, he's a man who has everything yet seems incredibly lonely and often unhappy. 4/10

• Depressing Movie by a Narcissist

  kwameboame2015-12-04

  The movie was awful for me. From the beginning to the end, you see a lad who loves being pampered and praised. Throughout the movie, there is a feeling of obsession of Ronaldo by himself and he seems to surround himself with people who only obssess over him like he needs some kind of validation. His obsession on wanting to be considered as a better player than Messi is also clear and even his agent joins in on that. The only parts I loved was the parts with his son...even there, there was a bit of narcissism but you can see he genuinely tries to be a better dad for his son and he really tries to make time for him. Overall, the movie was boring after about 20 minutes for me.