Darkmatters Review: The Firm 2009

The Firm (18)

Dir. Nick Love, who also made The Business, Outlaw and The Football Factory

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

ONE WORD SUMMATION: an’80sfootballfactory

Nick Love burst back onto the footie-chav-em-up scene following up his ‘revenge is big and clever actually’ Daily Mail reader pleasing Outlaw. This time he’s gone and remade The Firm - one of the best dramas about football violence (only bettered by the superb I.D. for me).

In fact here’s a quick Darkmatters top 5 football hooligan films:

1. I.D.
2. The Firm (1988)
3. The Football Factory
4. Rise of the Footsoldier
5. The Firm (2009)

The Firm remake tells the tale of young Dom (Calum ‘Danny Dyer mk II’ McNab) a 17-year-old who tells us that he’s “looking for more from life than break dancing and fingering his best mate’s little sister”… Alas what he finds is the West Ham Firm led by scary weasel-ish psycho Bex (Paul Anderson taking on the Gary Oldman role from the original).

Overall The Firm ’09 passes muster and is far better than the ‘hobbit football rampage’ of Green Street and the weak ass Green Street 2: Stand Your Ground which has to be the low point of this whole sub-genre.

Nick Love films always have top soundtracks and there are some wicked ’80s tunes here that help set the scene along with authentically bad clobber including the worst excesses of the track suit casual culture that will make anyone who lived through them cringe.

The violence is kept scary, messy and vicious, and thankfully less glamorised than in many footy hooligan flicks. If you’re into foot ruck films then you should check this out, if not then you’re unlikely to be converted and may never venture near a football ground ever again.

Darkmatters final rating of: ööööööö (7 – a decent effort but outclassed by older firms)

Darkmatters quick reference guide:

Action 7 (bring your bottles and stanley knives)

Style 7 (great '80s look)

Babes 6 (Dom's cherry busting babe is the highlight)

Comedy 8 (The parents are really funny and get most of the best lines)

Horror 8 (nasty enough to de-glamorise)

Spiritual Enlightenment 6 (only mugs join firms?)