There haven't been many films about soccer hooliganism, but this is a genuine attempt to capture the rush of adrenalin and glorification of violence that drives the football thug to kill and maim his fellow 'fan'. And, for the first half, as it were, it goes well. Four policemen go undercover to crack a core hooligan ring and the worse rackets that may lie behind it. One of them (Reece Dinsdale) becomes overpowered by the seething violence around him until it takes over his life and he is transformed into what he was hunting. Once there's the suspicion that the undercover squad may be rumbled, though, the film's grip starts to slide away. Dinsdale's policeman scores best in his moments of high violence but his times of flagellating self-pity are good only for a giggle. Sean Pertwee is nobody's idea of a thug leader and Richard Graham, as Dinsdale's partner, is hardly less likely. Both men seem too tidy and over-age to convince. Saskia Reeves is fine as the local barmaid, even if she inevitably sheds her clothes in the course of the action, but the senior policemen are rather less credible. Certainly worth seeing for its best moments.

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