The Firm (2009)

Wonderful character development!

hyped garbage

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The late Alan Clarke's original 1988 version of The Firm was an allegory on the Thatcher regime dealing with the rise of football violence in the suburbs. The story concerned the activities of the ICC (Inner City Crew), a gang of West Ham supporters who engaged in pitched battles with their rival clubs' hooligan contingent. I missed it the first time around and only caught up with it very recently on DVD and found it to be a dated, campy, theatrical affair that seemed more concerned with presenting a political parallel to the Iron Lady's tyranny than properly addressing that era's (equally troubling) violence on the terraces. At the very least though, it did have a point and a purpose, both of which must have run for the hills when the 'genius' that is Nick Love (the non-thinking man's Guy Ritchie) came a-knocking at this particular property's door for a Noughties 'reimagining'.With an impressive lack of insight/understanding for the source material, Mockney-boy Love launches his audience head first into an ineptly staged 1984 set tale, of a young wannabe soccer lout, Dom (Calum McNab), finding himself befriended and welcomed into the ICC's ranks by top dog, Bex (Paul Anderson), only to get on his bad side when he develops cold feet and tries to make a run for it.Love club-footedly hops from one ill devised scene to the next, assaulting the senses with his trademark tin-eared dialogue and vacuous pop-promo visuals, making it increasingly obvious that he has no more interest in the psychological make-up of working class hoodlums than he does in trying to hone credible performances from his largely wooden cast. In fact, the whole enterprise has amateur hour written all over it: too much of the story takes place in too few locations, instantly betraying it's meagre budget and giving the proceedings a fake, plastic sheen. A skilled and talented director would have pulled out all the stops to paper over the cracks and create the illusion of a more costly production, but Love's lack of flair and imagination insures he does neither. This woeful handling of resources ultimately undoes the fight scenes too. Anyone who was around during that period (like I was), will clearly remember that these gang battles took place inside the grounds, and not on the streets as they're depicted here. Were you aiming for a revisionist angle Mr Love?Worst of all though, is the dispiriting, vulgar display of designer sportswear on show. Instead of using this cosmetic tick as an incidental background detail to enhance the story's sense of time and place, it's pushed crassly to the front line for a crude catwalk assembly of primary coloured tracksuits and 'smart casual' togs, resulting in an overstuffed canvas of Logo-porn to lather up the army of Ad*das fetishists this shameless parade is no doubt squarely aimed at.And if none of that has 'whetted' your appetite, then all the above is accompanied by a putrid, pumping 80's disco-pap soundtrack to give your ears a kicking as well as your eyes. 'Enjoy'.

Dom is a teenager who finds himself drawn into the charismatic world of football 'casuals,influenced by the firm's top boy, Bex.Accepted by the gang for his fast mouth and sense of humour, Dom soon becomes one the boys.But as Bex and his gang clash with rival firms across the country and the violence spirals out of control, Dom realises he wants out - until he learns it's not that easy to simply walk away.I do like Nick Love. Sometimes his movies and him are subliminally referred as the British Uwe Boll. This isn't the case. His films are an acquired taste.It's a shame then that he has gone slightly downhill remaking the classic BBc drama of the eighties. That was a gritty film, not glamorising the violence, and Focused on Bex's family life struggling with his obsession of football. And it was sometimes very funny with it's witty script.Even though this film is entertaining, they have made a huge mistake by not focusing on Bex as the main character, they have decided to go down the route of every football hooligan flick, and focus on a newbie.And it just doesn't have the same impact. The Football Factory/Green Street/Awaydays have already covered this, so why did Love decide to take a step back.Other than that though the film is quite solid, and a lot of the characters are amusing, and if you are a fan of the eighties, you will feel a little bit of nostalgia hearing music and seeing TV shows and the fashion.So it's not all bad, but sadly a little disappointing, especially the scenes that are taken right from the original.If you haven't seen the Oldman version, see this first, and see a true classic.

Like a lot of people, when I first heard the news that Nick Love was "updating" the original version of The Firm I anticipated the worst. My objection lay not so much in the fact it was a remake of a classic film, but more as to why we needed yet another film centering on football hooliganism.The argument that such material merely glamorizes the violence it depicts, (appealing as it does to a section of youth that also worship the fashion and lingo of the genre) is without question. The worst example of which (and still prominent in most bargain bins of HMV up and down the land) would be the truly execrable "Green Street". A film so inept in its plotting, acting and overall plausibility that you'd be forgiven for thinking the whole thing had been stitched together by a gang of football thugs themselves.Contrary to what director Lexi Alexander may think, this was a film that at every opportunity served to heighten the voyeuristic delight of its male, teenage demographic. Self conscious fight sequences shot through with booming dance interludes, whilst a preoccupation with all things bloody gave way to an orgiastic ending which was more like a scene from Braveheart than a realistic portrayal of football mob violence.Which brings us back to Love and The Firm. What immediately strikes here, as it does in "Goodnight Charlie Bright", and "The Football Factory" is the skill and accuracy with which Love conveys his subject matter.The film is also a far warmer and optimistic piece than anything Love has made so far. Central character "Dominic" shares an all too believable rapport with his father, forever wrangling money from him, whilst both parents playfully tease him throughout the film - trying their best not to cramp his style when a friend catches Dom at his local sports store.It is this held focus on the family, combined with the way in which Dominic is positioned when the violence first unfolds (felled by a single punch and then little more than a terrified witness for the remainder of the film)that make for a clear mission statement on the behalf of the director.The scenes of violence here must also be commended for their reserve and authenticity. Thanks to Love's impeccable eye for the 1980s, the sense of watching a documentary on football violence runs close at times, with the camera skittering about to capture snatches of fight that never quite take off as quite accurately, the police intervene - with their standard uniform and makeshift formation, capturing them in flux before the later arrival of CCTV and full riot gear.This lends real tension to these scenes. Yet Love has no agenda here other than to show how quickly such altercations are broken up and how they often amount to little more than benign screaming matches. Even the more "laddish" Football Factory tended not to dwell on the full scale chaos between its football gangs and Love has clearly kept this in mind with The Firm.It must be said however, that the film hardly breaks new territory. (within what is already a very limited genre) Though there is no question that the look and feel of the era has been captured brilliantly and that as top boy "Bex" Paul Anderson is suitably charged, with its rather obvious ending - an eye for an eye simply meaning someone will end up losing their head, it is at least a refreshing twist to see Love's championing of the values of friends and family over the raging poison of the hooligans themselves.

If you have seen the original version of this, then the chances are you will really want to see this. I have seen the original, so when i saw this first advertised, i almost wet myself with anticipation. Sadly, i have to report that I'm quite disappointed. Paul Anderson does a pretty good job as Bex Bissle, however the performance can only be described as lacklustre when compared to the tower of menace and intensity that Gary Oldmans original incarnation produced.Now. If you are going to see this in the hope that its another Football Factory/Green Street/Rise Of The Footsoldier orgy of football and people bashing the crap out of each other, you will be sadly disappointed.This film does however contain Elise tracksuits, Adidas trainers, some bad haircuts and a decent soundtrack. Oh and there is a lot of profanities if you like that sort of thing in a movie. thinking about it this movie doesn't have a great deal else. There isn't much talk about the beautiful game or the teams the firms themselves support, there isn't much in the way of beatings, and if I'm honest, not a great deal of violence. Im actually very surprised that this merits an 18 certificate.However, the film is well acted, does feel quite indie and very British, though the trailer for that new Michael Caine movie was most likely the most excited i got in the whole 2 hours.Yes see this movie if your interested in the subject matter, but if you haven't seen the original and want to watch a proper football hooligan movie, check that out instead.