NICK Love's follow-up to The Football Factory is a gangland thriller that struts back in time to the Thatcherite 80s - an era of opportunity and enterprise. Some of it illegal.

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South London likely lad Frankie (Danny Dyer) gets into a spot of bother when he takes a cricket bat to his mother's abusive boyfriend.

Keen to avoid the Old Bill, Frankie lands himself a fake passport and heads for the Costa Del Sol where he is instructed to drop off a bag containing cash to a bar owner called Charlie (Tamer Hassan), aka The Playboy.

Charlie takes the young naive newcomer under his wing, introducing Frankie to the other three members of the Peckham Four, who fled to Spain after a botched robbery.

Danny (Adam Bolton) and Ronnie (Eddie Webber) welcome Frankie to the Costa Del Crime with open arms, but Charlie's long-time partner Sonny (Geoff Bell) takes an immediate dislike to the new boy.

And he doesn't mind showing it.

Frankie is quite rightly afraid of Sammy.

As he remarks in voiceover: "The geezer was so 'ard, even 'is ****ing nightmares were scared of 'im!"

Despite initial reservations ("I ain't one of yer!" Frankie tells Charlie), the lad agrees to stay and he soon becomes best buddies with his mentor, taking a leading role in the group's covert activities smuggling marijuana from Morocco to Gibraltar.

The growing bond between Frankie and Charlie ignites Sammy's jealousy, which nearly explodes when it becomes clear that the new boy fancies Sammy's vampish lover Charly (Georgina Chapman).

As the lifestyle of sex, drugs and women goes to Frankie's head, the dream turns sour, with tragic consequences.

Caught between the corrupt Mayor of Puerto Banas (Arturo Venegas), the Colombian mafia and Spanish coastal guards, Frankie needs a miracle to stay alive.

The Business does not live up to its title - while Love's film certainly looks great, evoking the style and fashions of the era, the storyline is second-hand and all too predictable.

Dyer's transformation from shrinking violet to cocky so-and-so is credible and there are strong turns from Hassan and Bell as men who communicate with their guns.

Unfortunately, we've seen this all before, most recently in Sexy Beast, which had directorial brio to spare.

The screenplay's swpm (swear words per minute) frequently charges into double figures.

Opening with Duran Duran's Planet Earth, the soundtrack is a feast of pop classics, including Heart Of Glass, Echo Beach, Video Killed The Radio Star and Welcome To The Pleasuredome.

In terms of Love's film, Simple Minds' lament Don't You Forget About Me falls on deaf ears.

See it at UCI, Odeon