Kicking Off

It's the last day of the season and loyal fans Wiggsy (Warren Brown) and Cliff (Greg McHugh) 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. What can possibly go wrong? This is a very funny film with strong performances and great writing which ensures you don't need to be a football fan to enjoy it. Football is the hook on which the action hangs, and it explores obsession, betrayal and blind faith with a deftness of touch. The dialogue is great and the scenes involving the interrogation of the referee in particular are very funny and clever. Brown (Wiggsy) and McHugh (Cliff) put in strong performances and Danielle Lineker is great as Wiggsy's long-suffering girlfriend but Alastair Petrie's understated performance as the kidnapped referee is wonderful. At its heart is a story about male relationships, the blurring of the line between hope and reality and how you shouldn't really mix football and real life - a beautifully-constructed and nicely timed comic gem ahead of another summer of potential football glory or crushing disappointment.

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.

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.

No pun intended. I really liked the idea and the pair of main characters really have a good chemistry together (one could argue their friendship is what holds it all together). The actors do a decent job. So what do I think went wrong? And I'm not talking about the actual plan (if you want to call it that).

Well I'd say that the pace but especially the intentions are a bit muddy to say the least. It also changes far too often (mood swings), has logical errors and if you're not interested in football (or soccer if you're American), than this will leave you cold. The basic idea also could be described as a bit mental. Then again, if you are into the world of fandom, you might understand at least part of it. Still it could've been better, even though it has quite a few nice moments in it (though a character falling down twice is at least one too many)