Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos: Critic Reviews

...a stylish scramble of evocative footage, groovy music, and crazy-candid reminiscences from key players still proud to score.

Giddy, gossipy and endearingly unslick, Once in a Lifetime chronicles the rise and fall of the most famous soccer team in the United States with slapdash glee.

Full of drama and fascinating anecdotes.

Anyone who wants to relive this flamboyant but fleeting chapter in America's uneven soccer history should not miss this.

The movie is only so-so, borrowing a little from the VH-1 school of popumentary but lacking the snazzy production values.

This intermittently fascinating documentary chronicles the rise and fall of the Cosmos--which is also the rise and fall of U.S. soccer.

Once in a Lifetime performs a belated autopsy on the Cosmos and the North American Soccer League and basically concludes that they died of impatience.

You don't need to be a soccer fan to, like Cosmos fans, fall for this captivating tale, told in Rashomon-like style.

A cavalcade of theatrical personalities, juicy war stories, unforgiven grievances and old-school cinema dazzle.

No Hollywood scriptwriter would dare make up a tale as outrageously unlikely -- but, as it happens, true -- as the one so entertainingly told in the documentary Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos.

Far more entertaining than it has a right to be.

Lively, free-wheeling amusement.

Once in a Lifetime is like a soccer team that plays good defense but lacks offense.

Well-researched and exuberantly compiled, this is a thoroughly entertaining tribute to America's first tackle at surgically implanting the beautiful game.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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