Mean Machine (film)

Plot

Danny "The Mean Machine" Meehan (Vinnie Jones), a former captain of the English national football team who was banned from football for life for fixing a match between England and Germany (the England Football Teams greatest European rivals), is sentenced to three years in Longmarsh prison for assaulting two police officers after a lengthy drinking session and driving wildly to a local bar.

Once inside, he is promptly beaten by the prison guards for misbehaving, and is subsequently approached by the prison governor. The governor offers Meehan a job as coach of the prison wardens football team; not wanting to make enemies with the other prisoners, Meehan declines, and instead offers to train a team consisting of other inmates, who will take on the wardens in a practice match. Meehan then recruits the resident contraband dealer, Massive, as his right-hand man, and receives advice from an elderly convict, Doc, who teaches Meehan prison lore and warns Meehan to avoid making mistakes by revealing he was in prison for killing an enemy as well as the enemys wife and child with a grenade. Meehan wins the respect of the other inmates after he attacks an officer, Mr. Ratchett, who is attacking Massive, and is then occupied with the task of training up his team of cons, including a maximum-security con named Monk (Jason Statham). Meanwhile, the governor of the prison gets himself into trouble with "Barry the Bookie," an unlicensed bookie who was recommended to him by Sykes, the resident prison boss, and decides to try and make back the money he owes by betting on the prison guards team. Doc is killed when Nitro, a maverick inmate and bomb expert, plants a bomb in Meehans locker at the behest of a prison guard. Nitro is subsequently sent to another facility, but not to the minimum-security hospital he was promised - he is sent to an alternate facility where the guard reveals he will be heavily sedated all the time.

The match commences shortly after Docs death. At half time, the inmates team, Mean Machine is winning 1-0, and things are going well until the governor, fearing what will happen if he loses a second bet, attempts to blackmail Meehan into throwing the match. At first he puts his own interests before that of the teams, playing quite badly but as the final moments of the game tick down, he redeems himself, and uses a square-ball to fellow inmate Billy the Limpet (Danny Dyer) to win the game for the cons. Afterward, the Captain of the Guards, Mr. Burton, refuses to co-operate with the governors attempts to get revenge on Danny, instead congratulating him on the match. The governors vehicle explodes, and Sykes informs him that he, and Barry the Bookie, will retaliate if he tries anything.

Cast

The film also included a number of actors who had formerly played professional football. Charlie Hartfield, who played for Sheffield United and Swansea City, and Nevin Saroya, a former youth team player at Brentford, appeared for the prisoners team. Footballers on the guards team included Paul Fishenden and Brian Gayle, who both played for Wimbledon.

Production

Mean Machine was filmed from April to June 2001. Most of the prison scenes were filmed at HM Prison Oxford, and the match was filmed at The Warren, the former home ground of Yeading.

Reception

Reception of the film was mixed to negative, according to Rotten Tomatoes, which gave the film a 34% score. A major criticism of the film was that it was unintentionally funny, that led to "prison cliches".