Pulsating, Violent, Riveting, Darkly Funny

Rating: 8/10 (3 February 2008)

Many will want to know how this compares to Green Street Hooligans. The two stories are handled quite differently. The Football Factory has almost a black comic feel to it. GSH is really the story of one young man's descent into a violent environment and is an emotional drama. TFF has more of the rhythm of a machine gun, with a, great, very high energy music soundtrack keeping it pulsate along the way.
Perhaps not as emotionally deeply felt as GSH, TFF keeps you in the thoughts and feelings of those in the gang. It makes it much harder to feel empathy for its characters (as each of them are all aware and enjoy the catharticism of the violent lifestyle), yet incredibly you do. The fact that it also is also very funny in an intended ironic way (much in the way that the protagonist in Sunset Boulevard narrates the story already having already been murdered), this film has that same knowing irony that also keeps the film bubbling.
I really enjoyed the ride in this one.