'What a load of Rubbish!'

Rating: 3/10 (16 January 2006)

When I initially heard about the planned movie version of 'The Football Factory' I was looking forward to seeing the story up on screen having read the excellent book by John King. I seem to remember in its early stages the film had Sean Bean and Dougray Scott attached, but due to the film having financial difficulties they departed the project. Luckily them it seems because this film was total crap! Where do I start? For one the actual story and characterisation has been changed considerably, one of the main reasons I liked the book so much was because you got under Tom's skin (the lead character), you felt his disaffection for his drab, dreary existence of 9-5 work and the mandatory booze sessions at the weekend. The rush and adrenaline from being in a football firm gave him the adrenaline and excitement he craved so badly. Men feeling marginalised in society winning back their masculinity and identity in an extreme way. The film has taken the very basically skeleton of the story but nothing else, I didn't really recognise any characters from the book, instead there was just a lot of bad acting and several story strands that were just utter toss and totally irrelevant - what the hell was the story on his grandad about!? The production values seem cheap and the fight scenes are nothing worth mentioning! What made the book better than a run of the mill football hooligan story was that it made you like/understand the character of Tom, the film doesn't do that at all and I don't even think it bothers trying. I thought Green Street was a much better film and that was middle of the road! Avoid!