THE HOOLIGAN FACTORY (2014)

The Hooligan Factory (2014)
Directed by: Nick Nevern
Written by: Michael Lindley, Nick Nevern
Starring: Jason Maza, Josef Altin, Keith-Lee Castle, Leo Gregory, Lorraine Stanley, Morgan Watkins, Nick Nevern, Peter Barrett, Ray Fearon, Steven O'Donnell, Tom Burke

THE HOOLIGAN FACTORY (2014)
Directed and co-written by Nick Nevern

After his hooligan father is locked up in prison and his uncle and current guardian is moving abroad, young man Danny finds himself homeless without any money, no job and nothing much really to do. A chance meeting with newly released inmate Dex, the head of the once highly-regarded and feared football firm The Hooligan Factory, gives Danny a new sense of belonging. Taken under Dex’s wing, Danny joins The Hooligan Factory where the firm set their sights on becoming the top firm of the country once more. But one man and his firm stands in the way – Baron. With history between the Baron and Dex, Danny knows The Hooligan Factory won’t stop beating and clobbering until Dex seeks revenge and destroys Baron.

The Hooligan Factory is a spoof of classic football hooligan films like The Firm with Gary Oldman, Green Street and I.D.. The film lifts memorable scenes and plotlines from these movies to create a tongue-in-cheek humorous spoof that both manages to act as a homage to these films as well as take the mick.

Whilst the film isn’t laugh out loud hilarious, it will give you quite a chuckle in places and riffs on certain classic The Firm scenes, such as Gary Oldman’s character Bex with his mate ‘Stanley’, beating his extendable baton in his bedroom whilst shouting out his rival’s name and the tattoo scene where the new blood must be inked with the firm’s name to become a fully fledged member. The ways in which they alter these classic scenes to turn them from fearsome into comedic moments will tickle your funny bone, as clearly a lot of love and respect for the originals remain between the jokes.

Nick Nevern co-writes, directs and stars as Dex, the moustached, tracksuit-wearing head of the The Hooligan Factory firm. He takes to the new kid Danny (Jason Maza) with ease and introduces him to his fellow hooligans: Midnight (Ray Fearon), the firm’s “first and probably only black football hooligan” who’s been looking after Dex’s missus whilst he’s been locked up; Bullet (Tom Burke), Dex’s right-hand man whose both sceptical and suspicious of Danny; Weasel (Josef Altin), born a crackhead and is slightly unhinged with a penchant for bottling people over the head; Trumpet (Morgan Watkins), a new breed of hooligan who boasts of seeing Green Street hundreds of times and loves to snort any powder that’s going; and finally Old Bill, the eldest of the crew who’s obviously an undercover copper though Danny is the only one to recognise this. Keith-Lee Castle stars as Dex’s nemesis The Baron, who acts slightly camp and likes to think he’s a higher class of hooligan, lounging about in a smoking jacket and attending the various rucks wearing a gentleman’s three piece – a vast contrast to Dex’s red tracksuit

A collection of great performances from Nevern, Maza and the supporting cast, as well as the much loved football hooliganism theme, cameos from Danny Dyer and Chloe Sims (TOWIE) and it’s dry tongue-in-cheek humour makes The Hooligan Factory an entertaining watch, particularly for British film fans of the football hooligan genre.

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