Trivia

To research his role, Charlie Hunnam met with real members of the ICF (the Inter
City Firm, the name given to West Ham's former hardcore firm of football
hooligans).

Goofs
During the first bar scene when Bovver is shown standing on a table singing their
West Ham song, he is clearly shown drenched in beer as they throw it everywhere.
The next scene is shown in the bathroom with Bovver and Matt and his sweater is
completely dry and shows no signs of the beer throwing.

Quotes
[last lines]

Matt Buckner: [singing] I'm forever blowing bubbles / Pretty bubbles in the air /
They fly so high / They reach the sky / And like my dreams they fade and die /
Fortune's always hiding, I've looked everywhere / I'm forever blowing bubbles,
pretty bubbles in the air. / United! United!

Connections
Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Movie Gang Fights (2015)

Soundtracks
Only When I Laugh
Written by [Renaissance)

Very powerful and close to the mark.

As an English ex-pat and a football fan, I went along to the Alamo Draft House
hoping for the best but expecting the worst. I got the best. This film is simply
brilliant and finally provides us with an accurate portrayal of life amongst the
hooligans in a way The Football Factory or ID never did.

Central to this are the amazing fight scenes and the performances of the primary
actors with Hunnam in particular doing an outstanding job. And if anyone believed
that all Elijah Wood movies would forever be tainted with the image of Frodo
Baggins, think again. Within about 10 seconds of screen time, any lingering
thoughts of LOTR are gone.

Yet whilst the direction, actors and the stunts will attract all the plaudits, for
me, the main reason why this film works so well is the very clever story and the
amazing script. Yes, in many respects the subject has been 'Americanised' but it
has been done in a way which is very subtle. I suspect that much of the credit for
this goes to the writer Dougie Brimson because it is obvious very early on that
there was a strong English influence on both the plot and the dialogue.

Given the level of violence, not to mention the subject matter, I'm not that sure
mainstream America will respond that well to it but for me, the big test will come
when it's shown in England but I suspect like me, the English audiences are going
to love it.

First of all there hasn't been a good film about English Football Hooliganism. Both
ID in 1995 and last years FOOTBALL FACTORY either failed to convince or just went
down the familiar exploitative road of glamorising the buzz and thrill of violence.

HOOLIGANS as the title suggests depicts what these aforementioned films centre upon
with the added value of having a story and characters you care about. There's no
avoiding the cliché's as the ranks of these organised gang members are portrayed as
gangsters.

Similar to BBC's Gary Oldman drama THE FIRM broadcast in 1986 it also show the
characters as normal members of society, family men with respectable jobs. FOOTBALL
FACTORY took the extreme and unconvincing scenario that these weekend animals are
florist's during the week which might be amusing but the subject matter of
organised territorial football hooliganism needs to be given a serious look at.

Fortunately HOOLIGANS portrays this more realistically, sure there's the stereo
types in designer clothes (The Chavs) as we call them now where loyalty, respect,
revenge, dignity and pride are what they live for, not the enjoyment of the actual
sport. This simply acts as the excuse to fight in a traditional gang warfare
environment. The prospect of West Ham's cup tie with Millwall brings joy to the
faces of both sets of fans.

Casting Elijah Wood is a bold move, he looks like a Choirboy but this adds to the
films main storyline of innocence corrupted. The acting is better than average,
despite letting his cockney accent slip on occasions, Gang leader Charlie Hunnam
shows a genuine mix of anger, aggression and compassion which holds the film
together.

This won't win awards but it's refreshing to see a film finally tackling the
subject matter that unfortunately has been a shameful factor of Britain's attitude
towards football as we are constantly under threat of being disqualified from
International tournaments due to the bad behaviour of soccer hooligans.