Football

News, Reviews & Features
  • The End of the Affray: How The Football Factory's ending is just incorrect

    Movie Feature | Ed Williamson | 7th October 2015

    I rewatched The Football Factory on Film4 last night. I don't harbour any real dislike for it as many do; elements of it are misunderstood and better realised than it gets credit for. I want to talk about its ending, though. You cannot end a film like The Football Factory does. I don't mean it ends badly. I mean it ends wrongly.

  • Gascoigne

    Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 9th June 2015

    Most people whose lives merit a feature-length documentary are probably going to participate in only one, and so you suspect this will stand as the only one Paul Gascoigne will ever do. This is a shame, because while it gets behind the clowning and reveals his fractured psyche a little in flashes, it's a busted flush overall.

  • New Shiznit film critic Michael Owen reviews this week's new releases

    Movie Feature | Michael Owen | 15th August 2014

    The internet did a collective snigger today when a Guardian interview revealed footballer-turned-pundit Michael Owen had only ever seen five films in his life, including Jurassic Park, Ghost and Heat. Because I'm a die hard Liverpool fan and I'm always keen to expand the horizons of fledgling film fans, I asked Michael if he was up for watching and reviewing five of this week's new releases, doubling his total. Unbelievably, he said yes! I know! I'm still in shock! Take it away, Michael Owen!

  • The Hooligan Factory

    Movie Review | Rob Young | 12th June 2014

    Quite frankly there are too many football hooligan films. So many, in fact, they're dangerously close to self parody. And they almost always feature the same things; double 'ard geezers off their fackin' heads getting 'proper nawty' and havin' it large. There might be some football tossed in too, y'know, for context. Oh, and a smattering of Stone Roses songs. And tracksuits.

  • Next Goal Wins

    Movie Review | Ali Gray | 2nd May 2014

    Football is a hard sell. Ever tried to get a non-football fan into it by showing them a game on TV? "Look, I know it's still nil-nil after 70 minutes, but this game is poised to burst into life any second! Look, that Stoke player just got booked for simulation! It's about to kick off now!" But amidst all the play-acting, the bus-parking, the scandals, the hookers, the sky-high wages, the sponsorship deals, the adverts and the hair transplants, there are two things that outsiders rarely appreciate about football: the passion found in the players who truly enjoy the sport, and the breadth of its appeal. Show that same non-fan new documentary Next Goal Wins, and I guarantee that by the final whistle they'll have a new-found appreciation for the beautiful game.

  • Dixon: BBC defection down to "culture of cruelty"

    TV Feature | Ed Williamson | 23rd July 2012

    Football pundit Lee Dixon today fired a bitter parting shot at his former BBC colleagues, exposing a culture of beatings, spitting and devil-worship.

  • Euro 2012 stars sign up for Game of Thrones

    TV News | Ed Williamson | 27th June 2012

    With England now having crashed out of Euro 2012 like the mugs they are, there's no real point in turning the telly on any more. Fortunately, many of the tournament's stand-out performers have been talent-scouted by HBO for the next season of Game of Thrones. No, I know I can't follow that first sentence with that second one as if there's some sort of causality involved. Shut up, you wouldn't have even noticed if I hadn't pointed it out.

  • Adidas release star-studded, Star Wars-themed World Cup advert

    Movie News | Ali | 5th June 2010

    As part of my duty to post anything and everything Star Wars related, check out this new Adidas advert, that can't decide whether it's promoting the FIFA World Cup or just how awesome Star Wars is.

  • The Blind Side

    Movie Review | Kirsty | 8th March 2010

    American football is a sport we don't get much information on over here; as Alan Partridge said, it's just futuristic rugby, right? But it's okay that the rules are overly confusing and we don't play it at school, because there is little to no gridiron action included in American football movie The Blind Side.

  • The Damned United

    Movie Review | Rob | 30th March 2009

    Back when the pitches were unkempt mud puddles, the wages were low, the shorts were high, the players were British (and Irish) chubby boozers and smokers, and the football was a proper contact sport with fists flying all over the shop. Before such things as 'transfer windows', David Beckham, and the concept of 'foreign' players,...