JP_Asher Reviews

When Saturday Comes (1996)

"Roy of the Rovers", the movie

[7/10 · 28 April 2011]

Sean Bean stars as equally Sheffield United-mad brewery worker Jimmy Muir, a talented footballer who was let down by authority figures as a young man. After ten years working a dead-end job the frustrated Muir meets Annie Doherty, a pretty Irish love interest played by English actress Emily Lloyd, and soon after gets the second chance at his dream that such people always seem to get in these modern fairy tales. Yes, the formulaic plot is predictable and clichéd, but it is still enjoyable to watch and there are quite a few touching moments.

Funnily enough, although this is a football film I felt one of the strongest aspects of the film was the way it dealt with the personal relationships between Jimmy and his family members and friends: Pete Postlethwaite, for example, playing Jimmy's mentor Ken Jackson, puts in a strong, convincing performance, as well as John McEnery as Jimmy's abusive father Joe. A subtle side-track detailing Joe's past and its relevance to Jimmy's present is cleverly done and is to me an important part of the film's overall message.

Unusually for a sports film, the actual football is very well done. Director Maria Giese manages to do what so few directors have before or since in getting both the match itself and the atmosphere right. Every game portrayed is totally believable, from the park football at the beginning to the climactic final match at the end. Giese should really be commended here; each match is very different and she gets the overall feel of each one at least very close to spot on.

One criticism I will give the film, however, is its ending, which seems incredibly rushed and not really believable -- I know I said before that this is a fairy tale but watch the film and I'm sure you will see what I mean. I think that if you cut out ten minutes from earlier in the film and add a few more minutes of action just before the film's climax, the movie would work a lot better. It just seems very sudden to me, that's all.

Nevertheless, "When Saturday Comes" is an enjoyable watch, especially if you're a football fan. By no means brilliant, but still well worth the night in. 7/10.

I.D. (1995)

Deeply disturbing, yet unmissable

[9/10 · 5 March 2011]

I'll just start by saying that a lot of the negative reviews I've seen for this film really miss its fundamental point. They focus largely on the admittedly far-from-realistic presentation of the football hooliganism, which I find surprising given that the film's real message -- as you would think would be made clear from the title and tag-line -- is "I.D."; identity; who you are.

"I.D." is a film which I really enjoyed very much; the plot opens with the formation of an undercover group of four police officers who are to infiltrate the hooligan firm surrounding the (fictional) East London football club Shadwell Town, based largely on the inner-city London clubs most associated with football violence. The previous police team has just been ratted out by the ever-vigilant firm, so it's very important that the four are careful to fit in perfectly to avoid blowing their cover. The undercover gang is split into two pairs, one of which consists of the superior officer, Trevor (Richard Graham), and the film's main character, John (Reece Dinsdale).

The undercover gang is led nominally by Trevor (because, as he says at one point, "I'm the sergeant!") but it is clear from early on that the real leader of the operation is the much more street-smart and savvy John. John carefully and gradually makes them known at The Rock, the main Shadwell hooligans' pub, staffed by the monolithic yet eloquent landlord Bob (excellently portrayed by Warren Clarke) and the friendly barmaid Lynda (Saskia Reeves), and he and Trevor become regular faces around the Shadwell firm. As John himself says in the film, Trevor is incapable, and nearly blows their cover on numerous occasions -- luckily for everybody, John is able to keep the operation going.

All four of the undercover policemen become actively attached to the Shadwell team, as well as to the hooligan lifestyle -- however, while the other three are able to keep some context on their activities, John begins to change dramatically from the clean-shaven copper presented at the film's start into a hard-drinking, hard-hitting Shadwell thug. When Shadwell are drawn to play away against their local rivals Wapping (also fictional) in a cup match, John's disillusionment is intensified when he witnesses uniformed police using excessive force on supporters during the match. The line between undercover policeman and real hooligan becomes obviously blurred, and John becomes more and more unstable.

I won't give the rest of the film away, as I encourage you to watch it for yourself; you will find yourself revisiting it over and over again, which is surely the sign of a movie with something special. A highlight is the wonderful original score by future Goldfrapp keyboardist and producer Will Gregory, which is a large part of what makes this film so great; the violent scenes are accompanied by heavy, pounding war drums, while the eerie backing scores for the disturbing psychological scenes add well to the overall atmosphere. The musical highlight, however, comes during the sequence at Wapping; an electric-guitar-dominated tune combines with the events on screen to create a feverish, climactic moment which I feel is the film's best.

Notably, no actual football is shown -- I think the point here is that the filmmakers are trying to say that hooliganism has nothing to do with it. Instead we are shown the crowds packing the terraces, chanting, cheering and shouting at the players and referee. Although there are some realism errors here and there (£3.50 seems jolly cheap for the late 1980s, for example, and in the middle of the aforementioned Wapping sequence the fans celebrate a goal by cheering for just a second, then falling silent) this is done very well on the whole; as somebody who held a season ticket at a club very much like those portrayed for a number of years, I have to say that the overall atmosphere was realistic and engrossing -- I really felt like I was with them at the game, and that is something I've never had happen with any other film.

All in all, I would just like to sum up by saying that I don't actually consider this to be particularly a football hooligan film, or even a football film; as I said above, no football is shown. I consider this a psychological thriller, which I think was what it is intended as -- and while I and others have spotted some holes in the realism of the football, the violence and so forth, I myself forgive the film because I feel it doesn't detract from its over-riding message; which is, as the film's tag-line says: "remember one thing: who you are."

The Shouting Men (2010)

Tries too hard to do too much

[5/10 · 10 February 2011]

After a quick skim through of the other reviews here, it would seem that I'm not alone when I say that although this low-budget independent film has its moments, it really simply tries too hard to pack too much substance into a film that doesn't particularly need too much to be an enjoyable experience. I'll try not to give too much away, but the film basically involves a trip by Gillingham football supporters up to Newcastle (at the other end of the country, about 300 miles away).

One odd thing I will mention which I don't think really gives anything away is the film's opening. It starts on a blank screen as you hear a few guys talking to each other about star signs. Naturally, you assume that these are the film's main characters -- but it turns out that they are only featured in one scene. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it just seems like a strange way to open the film. And the song "Tom Hark" is played to death in the travel scenes -- a bit more variance on the score would have been nice.

But the main reason why this film fails to deliver is simply because it tries too hard to be more than it needs to be. The cast largely consists of stock characters (oligatory fat bloke who farts a lot, lovable old grandad and so forth) but this could be entirely forgiven if the movie didn't try to take itself so seriously and juggle so many simultaneous story lines: It doesn't help matters that these side-stories involve pretty heavy material (which I won't give away). There are some rather large pinches of salt you have to take with the plot (an entire coachload of people fails to recognise the difference between Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Newcastle-under-Lyme, for example), but this also could be put aside if this attempt at a "charming British film" had been properly executed.

The film's only main female character is the aforementioned lovable old grandad's flirtatious grand-daughter, who seems to have been put into the film simply to appeal to that Soccer AM-watching demographic of young teenagers. It's given away pretty early that the girl has been away for a very long time and the grandfather wants to take her to see his favourite football team. However, although the young lady's back-story is that she's been travelling the world (they mention pretty much every country as somewhere she has been to), she simply isn't presented in a way that matches this introduction and thus is somewhat implausible. The film-makers also try too hard to make you find the girl attractive, which ironically has the opposite effect, as with the greatest respect to the actress the character presented is a complete slapper.

The film would have been much better had it starred the two main characters going alone up to Newcastle and meeting all of the supporting characters along the way in the service-stations, pubs and so forth. As it is, it tries to carry more weight than it can hold. Overall, it is still not by any means a bad film, and it does have some very good moments -- but don't watch this expecting a cheery booze-and-football "buddy film". It tries to present real-life football fans in a real-life setting, but in doing so it tries to be far more than it needs to be, and this ultimately lets it down. It's still worth a watch if you get the chance, but don't expect a masterpiece.