Director scores an own goal with hooligan rehash.

THE FIRM

** 18

THE poster got me worried. The trailer filled me with dread.

Finally, the movie just confirmed my fears - yet another film about football hooliganism that has nothing to say except mindless violence is bad for your health.

The football hooligan genre is dead and this confirms it. Please, no more movies that throws every clich in the book at us. The volatile friendships, the rival gangs, (or firms as they are known). The pounding (though usually excellent) soundtracks from whatever era the movie is set in - here circa 1984.

Nick Love is a director who says he's making films for the "chav generation". Well even they've seen the likes of this rehashed effort before.

Back in May, Awaydays hit cinemas. It was based on Kevin Sampson's cult 1998 novel of the same name. Set on the Wirral it mixed football hooliganism with a rites-of-passage tale of friendship, and a need to belong to something all underscored with a fantastic Seventies post-punk soundtrack.

To be fair to that movie it was better than your average football violence drama. It was an excellent character study with added layers and subtext which explored themes of male longing, unrequited love and even homoeroticism.

The Firm isn't anywhere near as substantial or satisfying. Loosely adapted from Alan Clarke's seminal 1989 classic TV drama, Love at least has to be commended for having the guts to tackle a reworking of such an acclaimed piece of work. But he should have left t alone.

Certainly the film boasts visual flair and strong performances, notably from Calum MacNab who plays the wannabe football casual Dom who is sucked into the violent world of Bex (Paul Anderson).

Dom of course is seduced by his charisma, the problem for me is that Bex isn't that charismatic, and there's no explanation into why any of the film's characters get a kick out of violence.

The inevitable happens as Dom is accepted as one of the lads. He eventually comes to his senses when the violence spirals out of control but he's stuck in a spider's web and Bex won't let him walk away.

Yes, we've seen it all before.

CAPTION(S):

IN THE THICK OF THINGS: Calum McNab stars as Dom KICKING OFF: The latest bunch of film football casuals