The Rise & Fall of a White Collar Hooligan (2012)

Overrated and overhyped

Great Film overall

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Since i have slagged off Press on Features considerably in my previous reviews, i feel i should make it clear for clarity's sake that not all of their output has been drab and vanilla waste as i've hinted at previously. Look no further than at what i guess what you could call their most iconic release, a Poundland staple, Rise and Fall of a White Collar Hooligan. Released at a time when both the gangland and Hooligan genres were in decline, this film combined the two, cleverly, admittedly, as a way to pick up the scraps of niche interest left over from the early 2000's. The result was an exploitation (and not the last one) of a true life account of a credit card fraudster with an "oh so indeed" frustratingly misleading title slapped on and the new wave of low budget Brit crime cinema crashed into our supermarkets. The Hooligangster film had arrived and has not left since. So, enough history, how's the film itself? Not bad. The quintessential low budget DV-era crime film. It has a clear idea of what it is and rarely bandies about with bringing the goods, all budgetary restrictions considered. Nick Nevern serves well as the small fish, big pond hood and is additionally served well by a good supporting turn by Simon Phillips and a well-balanced script that never struggles for politicisation and instead settles with sympathy for our protagonists.The clue is in the title. They are just atypical white collar guys, like the intended audience, who happen to embark on this underworld odyssey. There is really not a bad turn in this by anyone in this really. Unadventurous or safe yes, but never disastrous or insipid. It's a story that keeps your interest despite lacking the bombast of the more notable entries it apes consistently throughout the running time. Is it the best of it's kind? Maybe. Taking into consideration that it spawned a trilogy of steady quality, it's hard to argue anything of it's kind matches it in success. But with the increasingly ambitious (and enjoyable) works of the likes of Nicholas Winter and Terry Lee Coker upcoming, it might be only a matter of time before a new style establishes itself and closes over this fine ride of austerity era gangster fantasy.

"The rise and fall of a white collar hooligan". When you read a title like that, and with a movie poster of a hooligan holding a baseball bat then you obviously think you are going to watch a hooligan movie. So I was surprised it was not that at all. The only thing that can be matched to hooliganism in this story is that two of the main characters know each other from football. You only see like one or two fights, even if those scenes I would not call them hooligan fights. The movie is just a crime story about credit card fraud and gangster stuff in London. The story is actually not that bad, and the actors neither, it's just that I was expecting something else. All in all it's worth a watch but just don't expect hooligan stuff.

The idea while not the most original was interesting and could have been a decent movie if done right. Sadly, apart from Nick Nevern's intensely brooding lead performance, there is little that is right about The Rise and Fall of a White Collar Hooligan. The movie is not exactly amateurish to look at strictly speaking but it does have a rather drab look to it, there are scenes where it is good to have it but the scam/thriller moments were in serious need of more slickness. The soundtrack is not fitting at all and as music is dull and not memorable in the slightest. The dialogue is embarrassingly ham-fisted and while the swearing was appropriate within the type of movie it was the use of it was overkill, literally every other word. There is a little bit of violence, though surprisingly not particularly much. Considering the brutality of the language, you'd think the violence would match that, I personally was surprised at how played too safe it seemed. The very cobbled-together story handles the various themes(which it doesn't balance particularly well) with no depth to it and it all seemed rather half-hearted, not only that but for a 75 minute movie there wasn't anywhere near enough story to sustain it and to make up for it there are a lot of padded clichéd scenes. There are no characters to properly root for, they are so generic and parody-like, and apart from Nevern the acting comprises of actors who play themselves(Billy Murray), use forced delivery(Roland Manookian) or who can't do anything with their roles(pretty much everybody else). To conclude, decent potential that goes nowhere. 2/10 Bethany Cox

The "Geezer" film has become a staple of the British Film Industry in the last 15 years or so, popularized by the likes of Guy Ritchgie and then carried on in films dealing with either football hooliganism, violent crime, or both."The Rise & Fall Of A White Collar Hooligan" doesn't offer us much new, to be honest, but does it's job as well as can be expected. We get your typical footie loving hooligan Mike, played very well by Nick Nevern, who can't get a job in these disparate times etc etc. He's fixed up by fellow footie battler Eddie (an excellent turn from Simom "Jack Falls" Phillips) who introduces him to the world of organized credit card fraud. From here on, we follow his crime career with plenty of swearing and some, but not too much, violence.It's a good film that builds its characters well, using two of the better up and coming Geezer actors of recent years. the old school is represented by Billy Murray, playing his usual type, but the main focus is on the two leads, who carry the film with style. Oddly, the football element does not sit with the rest of the film, and as it doesn't advance either plot or character could be erased without any detrimental effect to the film as a whole. So, not up there with "Rise Of The Foot Soldier", but worth your time if that's your idea of a good night in.... geezer!