Watchable enough, with distracting dream sequences and an overload of noisy presentation

Rating: 6/10 (19 May 2016)

"The Football Factory" is a passable, entertaining movie about football thugs. It does not absurdly glamourise this moronic pass-time like "Green Street Hooligans", which expected us to be taken in by the culture of violence as its miscast hero was. It does, however, wallow in the muck a bit much, and it doesn't provide much of a reason for its hero's involvement in this horrible business.
Furthermore, the punchy style, with its quick, in your face editing, blaring soundtrack of recognizable bands, pugnacious voice-over, title cards, blink and you miss them flashback sequences, all combine to keep you at a distance from the protagonist. This is the style you expect from a British movie about the working classes, but by 2004 it was looking a little tired. It jazzes up the material, and is that really necessary? Do the creators love the violent lifestyle, or condemn it? They clearly do not wish to merely depict it, there's too much staging for that.
Danny Dyer is also miscast. He is introduced at the beginning of the movie as a typical young hoodlum. He doesn't look, or even really act, like one. There is some nonsense about him having recurring dreams that don't really add anything to the movie, or the character. After all the noise, swearing, violence and mayhem, they don't make enough of an impact to really justify their presence.
The movie is still watchable, it's just really not anything great.