ljubonni Very funny at the same time and sad movie! Good story, good scenes shots, great humor, good actors.I now imagine what a rivalry in England, in London! Chelsea, Milwall, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham, Arsenal ... What else to I work on Saturdays at 16 h is my favorite quote from the movie!You may be reading this as you seem funny, but I watched this movie 15 times:)) It is much better than the films on similar topics such as green street hooligans ...All in all, highly recommend this movie football fans, who love beer, action and good old English humor.Enjoy!

timmypearl First of all if your going to watch this film than you must realise that its about football hooligans and their way of life from the 90s to present day era.So there's no point watching it and than bitching about how its full of Chav's, yobbos, scum and fat lagboats. What the hell do you expect. I didn't go watch boys to men than come out of the cinema moaning that it was full of blacks, hoes, crack heads, and drive by shootings, that would be stupid. Anyway this is a realistic hooligan flick about a group of Chelsea hooligans (the headhunters)and their exploits around the country following their football club. They than finally get the dream cup draw half way through the season against Millwall.I doubt many people need to know what Millwall are famous for.The film is about the build up to this game.I found it funny and entertaining to watch with a few beers with my mates its not really a film to watch with your missus or the family. I think most young men from anywhere will enjoy this film and relate to different parts of it, its defiantly worth a watch.

Spikeopath I read a review of The Football Factory that said the characters are so "orrible" and "hateful" it was impossible to like them at all! You have to think that that particular reviewer knows nothing about the subject matter of the film he was writing about. Does he think that hoards of footie hooligans, who delight in knocking seven bells of tar out of each other, want to be liked?The Football Factory is directed by Nick Love and based on the book of the same name written by John King. It stars Danny Dyer {who else really?}, Frank Harper, Neil Maskell and Tamer Hassan {Hassan fans should note he's rarely in it tho}. The story is about what was termed The English Disease, a disease where like minded adults from various walks of life, religiously took to fighting like minded adults, in the name of what football team they happened to support. There's been a ream of books written on the subject, from those involved and by those who haven't a clue outside of reading their Sunday Times articles back in the day. There's also been one or two films about the subject, from pretty ace efforts like Phillip Davis' ID, to middling tellings such as Elijah Wood starrer Green Street. It's a subject that people seem hell bent on dissecting and attempting to get to the bottom of.So with that in mind, Love's movie is something of a triumph in that it tries the hardest to understand its topic. To those on the outside of football hooliganism, it looks like a bunch of blokes mindlessly inflicting harm on each other whilst simultaneously damaging the good name of the national sport. But Love, with help from King's source, explores ego led tribalism, male bonding, male conformity and dissatisfaction of life in general. Throw in the punches and a ream of genuine laughs and you got a film that is easy to like if you belong to a certain demographic. Here is the problem if you are not a geezer, a tribal footie fan or a mindless thug, The Football Factory holds no appeal to the casual observer, which is a shame, because as stated previously, it's trying hard to reason and understand. There's for instance a cracking plot-strand involving two old fella's, Tommy's {Dyer} granddad Bill {Dudley Sutton} & Albert {John Junkin}. Both lifelong pals who have grown tired of what "their" Britain has become, thus they are in the process of emigrating to Australia. This dovetails smartly with the unfolding story of football violence perpetrated by the kids of the day. Generational differences? Perhaps, maybe?The cast are strong, either fitting the mean profile perfectly {Harper/Hassan} or delivering the needed cocky swagger line {Dyer}, Love has assembled, what is for the material at hand, the perfect cast. OK we probably could have done with Vinnie Jones or Ross Kemp in there somewhere, but it's a low budget movie you know!. The fight scenes are grim and look authentic and the soundtrack rocks the large one too. So is it glamorising a touchy subject? Well yes it is, if you are a football hooligan yourself that is. It's not a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination, but it has good intentions in there, even if not all of them are fully realised. To which it leaves us with an impacting, intriguing and uneasily enjoyable movie. 7.5/10

johnnyboyz At its very centre, the question The Football Factory revolves around is 'was it worth it?' It is a question its protagonist Tommy Johnson, played by Danny Dyer, sees written in shop windows and on the sides of buses as his life increasingly spirals out of control whilst his conscience takes over and forces him to confront what it is he's actually doing in life. It is a question that Johnson asks himself near the very end but replies to his own voice with "Of course it was!", before he witnesses an act of violence so horrifying that it eclipses anything previously shown in the film. This would've left the film on an ambiguous note as to whether Johnson will now reconsider his prior reply or whether he'll even survive the next ten seconds of his life following this incorrect confirmation that it was indeed 'worth it'. The only thing that taints this final thought is the 'what happened next' caption/image that spoils what is, essentially, a fantastic film.The film was Nick Love's second, second only to Goodbye Charlie Bright which was a bit of a mess. Here, Love takes on substance and he takes on a relevant issue that is linked to today's British culture; that being football hooliganism. The topic may not be as common now or indeed in 2004 when it was made as it was a couple of decades ago, but it exists and The Football Factory acts as a sly reminder it does just as it is a stylish study-come-demonisation of said topic. The film does this through a variety of scenes but takes time to look at the bond between hooligans as this out of control journey takes place amidst a sea of grotty and grimy locations in and around England.The film follows Tommy and a couple of other characters in Chelsea football club's 'firm'. But teams are immaterial here as we look at Billy Bright (Harper); Rod (Maskell) and a younger member of the firm whom it would seem has quite large aspirations in terms of climbing the ladder within the group named Zeberdee (Manookian). Around all this lies the film's anchor; the film's one sane head who becomes a more humble and a more mature individual when he suffers a tragedy himself linked to his best friend of about fifty years. His name is Bill Farrell (Sutton) and he's Tommy's grandfather. One of the more memorable scenes is the introduction of Bright himself, which draws away from both comedy and drama and just becomes plain frightening when the light hearted tone in a pub is replaced by pure menace once he challenges a younger and smaller firm member. The character and his aggressive, confrontational mindset is set up perfectly for the rest of the film. Another scene that compliments the shifting in tone is when Johnson is cornered in some public toilets to do with who he is.The demonisation of being a football hooligan begins with a typical establishment of a night out. Tommy and Rod are looking for women and a drink and eventually they find both in a couple of loose girls with whom they venture back the one of their homes with. The following scenes offer light relief or comedy when it appears both males fell asleep but very quickly it turns into danger when Tommy wakes up with a knife to his throat and a fuming brother of one of the girls snarling at him. He escapes and, in his own words, "that's when all the trouble started". What began as a routine and potentially silly 'pick up and easy lay' scenario quickly turns into light comedy and then life threatening before you realise the demonisation of the scenario has been completed when Tommy turns up to work disillusioned, still shaken and slightly frightened. The whole thing suddenly does not look as glamorous.Twinned with this is Johnson's gradual decline into honesty about what he's doing thanks to nightmares and visions, something that branches out into a realm of the uncanny in this refreshing and multi-genre approach that has already been established will zip in and out of comedy, drama and horror. The key scene in moving the film into the third act occurs at a flower stand when someone who has escaped 'the life' tells Johnson to do the same thing with Bright himself being identified as a figure you don't want to end up as; as a figure of such hatred and violence and dedication to these two things that being with him will only incur further punishment.What's interesting about both character's demise into this mindset is how each one deals with the questioning of their own dedication. When Johnson asks himself if it's worth it, he begins to move away and questions his involvement. When Bright's dedication is questioned by the higher-ups after some eavesdropping, Bright chooses the wrong option and ups the stakes by bringing in firearms following the knocking of his ego. Such a scene demonstrates the correct and incorrect choices when this way of life pushes you into a corner and forces you to make a decision based on what involvement you truly, truly want in a hooligan firm. The Football Factory is stylish but doesn't glamorise; it is gritty and involving but you never really have 'fun' watching it. What you do feel, however, is thoroughly intrigued by the plight of this lone individual as he falls by the way-side and questions his own masculine identity amidst a sea of egos and violence.