Awaydays

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source: Awaydays

Thoroughly entertaining and engaging adaptation of a cult novel, i would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys this style of film - along with I.D., Football Factory, The Firm, Green Street etc this is that type of fast paced take on football hooliganism. The characters are rock solid and portrayed excellently with commitment and enthusiasm. There is an arty, melancholy, even decidedly feminine touch to some parts of the film which lends it a neat contrast. I would actually read the book to understand the characters better - that's how much i enjoyed it! Despite a few very small details picked up by other viewers this is, i feel, a very underrated film which deserves more recognition for daring to be different. The performances by Nicky Bell and Liam Boyle in particular are powerful stuff.

I've seen some rubbish in my time but this just about plumbs the depths - to be honest it started to veer into so-bad-it's-good territory and me and my friends were having a good little chuckle by the end. Where do you start when it comes to pointing out the weak-points - the wimpy teenagers beating up proper thirty-something geezers, the completely mismatched music (80s football hooligans ditching the jazz-funk or later acid house and listening to Joy Division!), the camp bloke who wouldn't have lasted a second, the accents (which even I a non-Scouser know are laughable)....it goes on and on...The fact that such rubbish even got made tells you more about the right-on nature of parts of the British media than anything else

Tried desperately hard to enjoy this film and it seemed to start off OK but the mixed story lines, and slow moving scenes etc meant I was nodding off about half way through and found it a struggle to get to the end. Some good bits but too jumbled and so many loose ends to really enjoy along with a damp squid of an ending that did it no favours. The sound track was probably the most enjoyable element with some decent 70's 80's tunes throughout. As hooligan films go, bit more realistic in places than sum such as Green St which is utter tosh but not on the same level as the original film of the 'Firm' with Gary Oldman which is a classic and still the best in my opinion.

This is has got to be one of the most bizarre movies I've seen in a very long time . It has the gloomy , gritty , realist kitchen sink drama you've seen a million times from every Ken Loach film . Somewhat conscious of this Pat Holden then introduces a contemporary soundtrack tothe film , a soundtrack that seems to go on and on . According to the wikipedia a grand total of 28 tracks are used throughout the running time . You can't get enough of doom laden nihilistic songs , tunes to slash your wrists to ? Then you'll probably enjoy AWAYDAYS . Oh and you're also a latent homosexual who can't catch enough homo erotic glances from male characters in a movie ? In that case you might just believe this is a gay , kitchen sink , pop video equivalent of GONE WITH THE WIND These aren't necessarily criticisms and AWAYDAYS would go down very well with film students wanting to discuss kitchen sink British drama or gay cinema or wider existentialist themes . Certainly the look and feel of the movie resembles that of many classic PLAY FOR TODAY dramas but the problem is there seems to be three different type of films trying to escape Certainly the best aspect of the film is its sense of time and place . Unlike Nick Love's remake of THE FIRM you really do believe the story is taking place in its chronological setting , so much so that Holden gives the impression that he owns a Tardis . The hairstyles and fashion and whole feel of the movie screams that it's 1979 Merseyside . However this is the only thing Holden manages to capture well and convey to the audience It's interesting how extreme some of the reviews on this page are and after watching AWAYDAYS you'll take on board both the praise and criticism . Both sides are right in their arguments and I'm sticking by my one line summary at the top of this review

There seems to be some ill-will towards this tidy little parable and I cannot understand why. Maybe the Joy Division fanboys feel the material is misplaced but I contend the great soundtrack is only used to set time and place and does not work in reverse like some latter day music vid. Nor is it a 'hooligan' movie. My own reaction was that this is a terrific effort, both from a committed cast and production side who nail the period in perfect British bleakness. The football hooliganism feels like it is intended - a fantastical sideshow and not the main thrust of the film which centres around a lower middle-class lad's attempt for acceptance by a pack of working-class hooligans and the unrequited homosexual love between him and the pack's coolest member. Carty, said middle-class lad, ultimately is a tourist, and the film conveys this superbly while whipping us along for the ride. Pay little attention to those attempting to fold this boisterous creation into a pigeon hole; it stands on its own as a potent reflection of a sentimentally grim time in British culture. Entertaining, admirable and bittersweet. Watch it.

As someone who was born in Birkenhead and lived in Wirral for over 30 years, the first thing that struck me was the awful accents. Even I struggled to understand! Hardly surprising that most of the cast is from Manchester. It's difficult too to pin a time on the film, 70s buses and trains then a modern Renault Clio and some recent Merseyrail trains. All of which just make me think 'must try harder' A group of young kids embark on several fights against men 3 of 4 times their age, come out unmarked. Little to make you feel for any characters, a death that comes out of the blue with no real reason.....all in all, not great. My reason for watching....spotting the local landmarks and a decent soundtrack. Perhaps I should have read the book instead.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning After the death of his mother, Paul (Nicky Bell) is looking for some direction in his life and thinks he's found it with 'the pack', a gang of football hooligans in late '70s Merseyside with a distinctive dress sense and tribal mentality. However, an encounter with former top boy Elvis (Liam Boyle) gives him an alternate view of them and the possibility of moving his life in a more positive direction. Elvis's dream is to escape to Berlin and lead a more fulfilling life and this is a direction Paul sees...but circumstances beyond his control drag him down with those around him and see his life thrown into chaos. As morally dubious as they are, 'hooligan' films certainly have their own cult following in the UK, although this dramatization of a late 70s Merseyside gang has received limited exposure. It's an admirable piece, without any funding from any of the big London studios (ah), and it's not translated particularly badly into a film. But that doesn't mean it works. The performances from the two lead actors are fine, as well as supporting actors such as man of the moment Stephen Graham in a smaller role, but who manages to have presence even with this. And it's an engaging piece of human drama, that manages to sweep you along with enough substance and depth to keep you hooked. But it's all lost on some weird art-house trip with itself, with slow, lingering close up shots of Boyle's bare chest and symbolism with red paint flowing between fingers representing blood, all done to a haunting Joy Division soundtrack. While it's stuck in this rut, the story becomes less engaging, the characters lose their depth and the film generally becomes a bit of a mess. Hardly a failure, but still a bit of a shame. **

This film is jarringly bad - there's the odd decent tune on the soundtrack, but how did this garbage ever get made. We live in harsh, recession hit times, yet people still had money to waste on making this!!!!! Sometimes, the world just doesn't make sense. Where to start... Acting - uniformly bad; the accents - terrible; the screenplay: Sampson cannot blame anyone else for this mess - he adapted his own novel (have not read the book but would anyone be encouraged to after seeing the film?) He clearly doesn't understand the period that well, though - scousers did not talk like this in the late seventies. In sociolinguistic terms, the dialogue is miles off! I didn't get beyond the 12-minute mark; without a doubt, a contender for the worst film ever made.