Tedious, predictable piece of film-making.

Rating: 1/10 (19 January 2007)

The Football Factory, is poorly written, poorly acted and crammed full of lazy, half-hearted political statements that try to give weight to what is really just another glamourisation of violent idiots. How strange that a study of people who use football as the catalyst for fervent, tribal head-kicking features absolutely no football! It's a low-budget mish-mash of every other mockney hardman film, directed by someone with delusions of being Martin Scorsese - see freeze-frame/voice-over, manic editing or, worst of all, the scene in the pub between Billy and Zeberdee, which is basically a carbon copy of Joe Pesci's 'How am I funny?' scene in Goodfellas, except with all the real tension removed. There are no characters that provoke any sympathy, unless you're the type of brainless Neanderthal who idolises football hooligans. If you are, then crack open a few cans, put your true-crime book down and enjoy the film; probably fastforwading some of the boring 'talking' bits. If you expect more from a film than a bunch of Guy Ritchie extras slurring gangsterisms and punching each other, look elsewhere. I suggest The Firm, starring Gary Oldman, which tackles the same subject but is a superior film in every way.