Before he joined EastEnders, I knew the sweary cockney actor for films like Human Traffic and Severance, and of course his many straight-to-DVD releases, EastEnders has given him the opportunity to get away from his usual hard man character, when it comes to his film career, this is the film most people know him for, directed by Nick Lowe (The Business, The Sweeney). Basically Tommy Johnson (Danny Dyer) is a member of a Chelsea hooligan firm, his friends and fellow hooligans are his best friend Rod King (Neil Maskell), hot- tempered Billy Bright (Frank Harper), and young and impulsive members Zeberdee (Roland Manookian) and Raf (Calum MacNab). Tommy's pensioner and veteran grandfather Bill Farrell (EastEnders' Dudley Sutton) is disappointed as Tommy spends his days drinking, using drugs, womanising and fighting, Bill plans to move to Australia with his best friend Albert (John Junkin). Tommy has an epiphany about his lifestyle during a fight with the Tottenham hooligan firm, Tommy, Billy and Rod are arrested for assaulting two Stoke City fans, Chelsea firm leader Harris (Tony Denham) is furious by these actions, especially by Billy's aggressive outbursts. Other things going on include Rod beginning a relationship with court clerk Tamara (Sophie Linfield), she pressures him to skip his weekend meets, and Billy's house being accidentally robbed by Zeberdee and his friend Raff, Billy himself deals with increased loneliness overhearing his irrelevance to Harris, and Bill's friend Albert dies the night before they are due to leave for Australia. Tommy is caught and held hostage by the brother of a girl he picked up at a club, Shian (Michele Hallak), Rod saves him, hitting the man on the head with a cricket bat, the brother turns out also be the brother of the rival Millwall firm's leader, Fred (Tamer Hassan), who is hunting Tommy down. Throughout the various characters encounter a racist taxi driver (EastEnders' Jamie Foreman), this is a subplot recurring. All the fighting culminates in a battle between the Chelsea and Millwall firms, with Tommy severely beaten up, ending up in hospital with Bill who has suffered a heart attack. In the end Tommy remains with the firm, Bill moves to Australia, Billy Bright is imprisoned for seven years, Zeberdee is killed by a drug dealer, this was a dream that Tommy kept being tormented by. Also starring EastEnders' Kara Tointon as Tameka. Dyer as the leading star and narrator certainly serves his purpose as a low-life football hooligan, the other actors do their parts fine as well, there is no real storyline as such, it is really a view into the life of a thug who like to beat people up and loves football, it does not hold back with the violence, so it neither condoning or condemning it, I could not follow everything going on, but overall I found it an average British sports crime drama. Worth watching!

Nick Love has to be one of the shoddiest directors working in Britain today. All of his films have a depressing, fatalistic air to them, lacking in decent characters and character intrigue. All of them feel slightly false, in that there's something hollow about them. When you see somebody acting in a Nick Love film, you always feel that they're acting rather than believing in the character.This is my fourth Love film, following on from THE BUSINESS (poor), OUTLAW (hugely disappointing) and THE SWEENEY (acceptable at best). It's the simplistic story of a football hooligan and the friends and rivals in his life. The film boasts an early, career-making turn from Cockney geezer Danny Dyer, who's frankly annoying in this one, playing alongside the likes of Dudley Sutton and Tamer Hassan.Love's own script is the worst thing about this. Unsurprisingly he has an air for thuggish-sounding dialogue but the dialogue is just random expletive-filled insults throughout. It's hardly Tarantino, more like a load of juvenile nonsense from somebody with a clear lack of talent. THE FOOTBALL FACTORY is the kind of film that makes you despair for state of the British film industry.

I am not sure exactly what the point of the film is. The script seems to be trying to channel Trainspotting, but can't quite get a connection. It might have been trying for a 'gritty' sort of feel, but ultimately it ends up looking like a bunch of amateurs.While a film like Green Street may have been Hollywoodised, at least it actually portrays the English football firm mindset with some authenticity. With a techno soundtrack and tries-to-be-snappy narration, The Football Factory strives to be like notable British films such as Trainspotting and Lock Stock, but fails miserably.None of the characters have any depth to them, and the film is bereft of any actual plot. It's a thoroughly un-enjoyable and boring film. The main character is a loser, his best mate is a fat loser and the apparent 'hard man' of the firm is just a fat 40yr old loser. There's no personality and nothing worth watching about any of the characters.Notable failures: some pointless dream sequences thrown in that only serve to ruin further an already crap effort; a recurring taxi driver who is exceedingly annoying; the old guys that just waste more time. Unauthentic, unrealistic, meandering, pointless, and no actual football.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning In what were still the early noughties, Nick Love sparked what was to be a string of football violence related movies of the decade with this high energy, hard hitting exploration of male culture and the lure of the crowd, and in turn provided star making turns for both himself and lead actor Danny Dyer.From the opening credits, The Football Factory hammers your senses and drags you in for the ride with it's high tempo soundtrack interspersed with the various headlines of the scourge of football hooliganism, a style it will keep up through-out the rest of the film. The film is aiming for your face and brilliantly uses a heavy beat soundtrack to drag it along through-out. It gained more attention for it's controversy because of it's violence and mind blowing amount of bad language than for any stand out performances, in much the same way Alan Clarke's TV drama The Firm did two decades before it.Like Trainspotting, there is no 'plot' as such, it more just follows hooligan Tommy (Dyer) about with his gang as he begins to suffer nightmares and question his means of releasing his pent up energy, whilst a big clash with Millwall looms on the horizon. But this doesn't detract from it's startling, raw intensity and intense delving into the minds of men looking for armies to join. Dyer cemented himself as the Ray Winstone of his generation with his 'cockney geezer' persona, with his own cult film on the same level Winstone gained his notoriety for his role in Scum. Special note must also be made to Frank Harper as Billy Bright, an ageing hooligan who can't grow up or accept he will never be top dog, Roland Manookian as drug addled low life Zeberdee and Dudley Sutton as Old Man Farrell, the closest to a sane, law abiding head among all these repressed hot heads.Yes, the film is filled with mostly undesirable characters who are the kind most of us would want to keep a million miles away from in real life. But only the most faint hearted of us would find their violence too much and only the most weak minded would want to imitate it. As a nosedive into this world and as a study of why they do it, TFF is the best film of it's sort all decade, with the energy, intensity and killer soundtrack to make it accessible to a modern audience. It's only a shame I couldn't appreciate it on as many levels as it deserved the first time I saw it. *****