Yet another Brit flick that is like watching a first draft script

Rating: Null/10 (22 August 2006)

You can't make a good film from a bad script as is the case here. The script is just underdeveloped, come the end of the film you just don't get that "satisfaction" feeling that you're supposed to, that you need to. Why? Because the themes are badly explored, plot trails go nowhere and, most of all, we can't really get a hook into any of these characters. Even with hard-nosed content like this we should still be able to care about someone. Here the opposite it is true and in the film's final moments we even find ourselves cheering a character we've only briefly glimpsed.
A good example is the Bill character overhearing a plot by the other head guys to keep him out for being unreliable. This dramatic moment of undoing for the character should signal later events but nothing comes of it. There are lots of these unpaid moments which amounts to poor scripting.
The British representation is very true to life. It looks so much like the Britain we all know yet never rises above it enough to become a proper movie. Obviously the budget is less than an episode of EastEnders and the fact it looks to be shot on video doesn't help. You can't really have dream moments in a film like this, it's just not "magical" enough. The grandad subplot is also completely at odds with the rest of the film's unrepentant hooligan theme leaving really messy results.
The dialogue in this film is too pedestrian, lacking comedy or sparkle. The narration is of the most intrusive and expository type. The "action" scenes weren't a patch on Gangs of New York. The unrepentant themes are jarred badly by the closing moments and there is no real exploration of why these normal people need to do this.
If the Football Factory had been funnier and less afraid of the tragedy it might have been a great film. As is you're just left with one of those messy, mismatched genre films that is evidence of the British Film Industry's consistent mistake of filming too raw and unsatisfying a script.