The Football Factory (2004) starring Danny Dyer, Frank Harper, Tamer Hassan, Roland Manookian, Neil Maskell directed by Nick Love Movie Review

The Football Factory (2004)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Danny Dyer in The Football Factory (2004)

The Cliche Factory

Tommy (Danny Dyer) has grown up in London and the football culture or at least the football hooliganism culture of a Saturday afternoon where the fight is as important or more important than what goes on on the pitch. And for Tommy he is surrounded by similar minded people including the bitter Bill (Frank Harper) who has been in the firm for so many years and had so many beatings that he is now a psycho, a danger to those around him as nothing scares him. But Tommy has Granddad Bill (Dudley Sutton) who fought in the war and is longing to move to Australia. When Tommy hooks up with a sister of a Millwall fan things start to kick off in a big way.

What can I say about "The Football Factory" other than it seems like a pointless movie with a storyline which has been told in various guises many times and done in a style which seems to be imitating other movies. As such it becomes a movie which plays out in front of you and beyond recognizing various actors you spend most of the time contemplating what other movies it is similar to.

Frank Harper in The Football Factory (2004)

Now to put you more in the picture we have a "Trainspotting" style with Danny Dyer providing the commentary on what is going on, how the violence is the way of life, how he and others were raised to fight and hate others. But we also have an attempt to recreate the extreme humour as well with Jamie Foreman showing up as an extremely racist cabbie who won't stop spouting his extreme opinions. But it doesn't come close to getting the edge and energy which partly comes from the storyline which whilst there are some ins and outs with Tommy ending up going home with the sister of the rival typically revolves around whether it is all worth it, all the violence and so on. But it is a story which has been told many times and this does little to make it feel fresh or new.

What that actually means is that "The Football Factory" ends up about the actors giving it large including Dudley Sutton as a dope smoking granddad and the violence. But again everything about it feels like a cliche from characters who can't string a sentence together without a swear word to who shows up in the movie seeing it is a London movie.

What this all boils down to is that "The Football Factory" ends up a middle of the road movie which almost feels like it has not point because of all the cliches and characters feel like they have been recycled from other movies.


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