Kicking Off

The problem about many films about football is that they confuse 4 letter words with humour or to emphasise a point.It's about time that writers realise that it is neither funny or shocking and tends to obscure their inability to write a coherent script.This film deserves to be relegated to the rubbish bin.

This movie is good fun and full of laughs. However, it is much deeper than the standard sports movie. It effectively digs around concepts of fanship. It tests the viewer to consider their passions and beliefs.

Do you know where to draw the line between passion and obsession? How do you know when enough is enough? Do we take games too seriously?

Some really deep ideas that are well explored with great humour and a brilliant plot.

I thought this was a well written, well directed and well acted movie. Good fun and interesting. The shooting style kept attention and pace. It felt distinctly British.

Comedic thriller with an interesting concept and does next to nothing with it.

It could have been a rather striking vision of the quite desperation we live in and how sports fandom is a desperate attempt to find meaning in the void.

But it didn't. With flaccid humour, a plot that lacks momentum, characters that don't even have the personality required to be annoying and a trite approach to its own moral message, this is a movie that doesn't even hit the post.

At one point the main character turns to the audience again and says words to the effect of "and then it was like in a bad movie when they turn on the radio and it just happens to be something relevant to them."

When you are resorting to justifying a cliche by acknowledging the cliche then you probably should have taken some writing classes.

The first and utmost annoying thing about this film is the fact that they are the biggest fans of this team ever, willing to kidnap a referee BUT there NOT even at the match (Yer great fans, hey). These so called massive fans are watching it in a PUB with loads of thugs. Anyway, it's the last day of the season and loyal fans Wiggsy and Cliff assemble for a crucial denouement. It's simple: win and the team stays up; lose and they're down. When their team appears to grab a vital winner in the dying seconds the boys wild celebrations ensue, only for them to discover that the referee (Alastair Petrie) has disallowed the goal. Chaos ensues and Wiggsy and Cliff (reluctantly) decide to take matters into their own hands. To Wiggsy, it's simple: Get the referee to admit he made a mistake in disallowing the goal, and the team stays up while Wiggsy becomes a hero. I suppose it's worth a watch as it is quite witty in places.

Kicking Off is a low budget black comedy with a lot of kinetic energy and visual trickery that disguises the fact that the profanity filled muddled screenplay has ran out of steam.

Football fans Wiggsy (Warren Brown) and Cliff (Greg McHugh) are sick as a parrot when on the last day of the season, their football team is relegated. Their goal was disallowed and soon after the other side scored. The duo are gutted.

Wiggsy decides to kidnap the referee (Alastair Petrie) and get him to admit that he made a mistake in disallowing the goal. Cliff is perplexed and horrified that some pub banter has gone badly wrong.

The film is obviously inspired by The King of Comedy. Petrie who so often plays the snivelling villain gives a nicely understated performance as the god fearing ref who quickly figures that his kidnappers are barking mad as well as inept.

Wiggsy is the hothead whose actions signify that he is losing touch with reality, maybe due to the fact that his love life has gone awry.

The film is uneven in tone, too often switching from comedy to violence.