just watch it!

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

This was broadcast on BBC2 one Sunday night circa 1997 . Its original scheduling was opposite RESERVIOR DOGS on Channel 4 and perhaps mindful of this BBC2 changed its broadcast at he last minute . As far as I recall this was the only time it was ever shown on British network television but its impact was enough to make me believe that this was by far the best film featuring the sub-genre of the football hooligan movie . After seeing it again after over 15 years I'm afraid my memory has been cheating on me The story is set in 1988 and sets up the plot of the police trying to infiltrate and smash a gang of casuals attached to Shadwell FC who call themselves the dogs and right away we're shown how nasty the Dogs are via rival supporters being smashed up by crowbars and slashed with stanly knives via CCTV footage with the Inspector saying it wouldn't be worth the while of arresting them because " They'd only get a few months be out by the start of the season " . Let me get this right - you almost batter someone to death or slash them to ribbons and it's all caught on CCTV and you're only looking at a sentence of a few months along the lines of disturbing the peace ? Is a charge of attempted murder not a possibility ? It also points out these guys have previous convictions for football related violence so surely if found guilty the judge would be able to throw the book at them ? You might have to suspend disbelief to overlook this as a plot turn in order to set up the story but the screenplay by Vincent O Connell fails to follow its own logic and later on someone finds himself arrested and charged from stealing a jar of pickles from work Like all hooligan films the casuals are a cosmopolitan mixed bunch , one of them has to be black and one of them has learning difficulties . Nice to know that football firms are equal opportunity employers . You can claim that the EDL does indeed have the occasional non white member and the EDL does make a big thing that one of its most prominent members is a Muslim from Glasgow who supports Glagow Rangers but still there's something not entirely convincing about the composition of the Dogs . Sean Pertwee as Martin and Reece Dinsdale as John are relatively well cast but Richard Graham as Trevor one of the undercover cops fails to convince as someone who'd be taken on in to a firm . That's the problem with the entire film - a lack of conviction to nearly everything The one thing ID does well is to portray the appeal of football violence - of belonging to a working class gang bent on violence . This is captured in by far the best sequence of the movie where a section of traveling Shaswell FC fans stand in the home end of their opponents and start singing leading to a brawl . John breaks free of the police and runs in to the away enclosure as he's hailed as a hero while stirring music ( Composed by Will Gregory later of chill out techno band Goldfrapp ) plays over the soundtrack and it's this scene that will remain in the memory Perhaps that's why ID disappointed me . It's a film that contains a few very good sequences but these sequences are far and few between . IIt's also a film that suffers like so many British films from the period in that it doesn't have a cinematic feel to it and looks more like an overpriced television play . It does serve as a reminder that in the 1980s you could stand on the terraces and shout and swear and sing rude songs to your opposite number fans standing a few yards away . ID is also helped by the fact that it was released a few years before the football hooligan film was done to death but with hindsight Nick Love's THE FOOTBALL FACTORY is probably the best in its field

Sadly it will be largely forgotten as made for TV/straight to video/independent films do. I will give a brief review to it though as it is a film I have always remembered.Me and my mates had a great laugh and were glued to the TV when watching it! The football chants, the aggression and hostility to the opposing sides, the pub gatherings, the boozing….the lad-ish behaviour …all so authentically British!But, what I remember about it is the characters and their development throughout the story.It follows a band of Cops set as an undercover squad to infiltrate the hooligan element in the local team: Shadwell FC (if I remember correctly)The story follows the evolution of their demeanours and near loss of their own psyche (one actually did totally loose it) as they seek to emulate hooligans in the undercover sting operation. These are professional policeman and they are gradually declining into real hooliganism. Their behaviour is spilling over into their professional lives ...into their non-working lives…into their family lives …and has some disastrous consequences.Scene by scene, act by act, you can see they are slipping into a dark area of human psychology and sociology which I myself had been used to seeing in the British football arena. This film premise has been done before and has been done since ….but not as good and they way this film does it. It does it in a gradual incremental process which you follow almost as if you there yourself. You can empathise. You can almost see yourself doing the same thing if you and your mates had to do such a sting operation. Getting carried away in your role …living it too much for real …losing your identity (I.D.)!!Watch it if you can still find it; a little gem of a movie!

Really enjoyed this film, as it was not just about mindless football violence, but about the social structure of white working class men in Thatcher's Britain. As I Football supporter of many years myself, I know the thrill of the terraces and how violence can be to some people like a drug. I liked all the characters, the geek Trev, Linda, Bob, Nick, Martin and especially John as he losses control and his behaviour spirals out of control and he ends up in the BNP, as Winton Manbolla said would happen to the boot boys. The way John destroys his relationship with Marie who clearly loves and adores him at the beginning of the film is well thought out. Would have been nice to end the film with John getting a beating from Bob, Nick and Martin if they come across him at Shadwell Town Football Club, what more can I say except for excellent.

Where do i start? Wooden acting , abysmal dialogue ,completley unrealistic. Not only are we supposed to believe that a gang of undercover police infiltrate a football firm (this would take years ) also they become that addicted to violence, it spilled over into their everday lives!!!! The football violence was very dated (circa 1970,s ) not like it is now. Obviously no resaerch was done into how they dressed and spoke, the dilogue resembled an episode of "The Sweeney" ( a British cop show where they said "shat it " a lot). You may have found this film entertaining, but as an accurate observation of a football hooligan lifestyle NEVER I should know ,, I was one. This film should have been called " Carry On Hooligan" !!!!!