- A wrongfully expelled Harvard undergrad moves to London, where he is introduced to the violent underworld of soccer hooliganism.Running Time: 108 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R Age: 012569760295 UPC: 012569760295 Manufacturer No: 76029
A wrongfully expelled Harvard undergrad moves to London, where he is introduced to the violent underworld of soccer hooliganism.
DVD Features:
Documentary:The Making of Hooligans
Music Video:“One Blood” Music Video by Terence Jay
After the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Elijah Wood could’ve opted for further big budget epics, but took a sharp left turn with this better-than-average B-movie. Released just after Everything is Illuminated, another offbeat entry, Wood plays journalism student Matt Buckner. In the prologue, he’s expelled from Harvard when his over-privileged roommate sets him up to take the fall for his own misdeeds. With nowhere to go, Matt decides to visit his sister, Shannon (Claire Forlani), in London. He’s already got a chip on his shoulder when he falls under the sway of Shannon’s brother-in-law, Pete (Charlie Hunnam), head of West Ham’s football “firm,” the Green Street Elite. Matt soon gets caught up in their thuggish antics—to tragic effect. In her feature debut, German-born Lexi Alexander makes a mostly convincing case for the attractions of violence to the emotionally vulnerable, as opposed to the emotionally numb pugilists of the more satirical Fight Club. Unlike David Fincher (by way of Chuck Palahniuk), she plays it straight, except for the stylized fight sequences. Consequently, humor is in short supply, but the young Brit cast, especially Leo Gregory as the surly Bovver, is charismatic and Wood makes his character as believable as possible, i.e. he may seem miscast, but that’s the point. Although there’s no (direct) correlation between the two, Green Street makes a fine taster for Bill Buford’s Among the Thugs, the ultimate dissection of the hooligan mentality. –Kathleen C. Fennessy
Buy “Green Street Hooligans” For Only $11.25
March 5, 2010
#1
Contrary to popular belief, at least as it appears to be on the US side of the pond, this movie is beyond awful.
As a study of footballs (soccer) gang culture it pales by comparison with everything else from The Football Factory to ID but even worse, as a study of England it is just the latest in a long line of American movies and TV shows which portray England via a series of bizarre locations, dreadful overacting and appalling accents. Oh yes, the accents. Charlie Hunnam in particular will go down as one of the worst cockney accents of all time although to be fair, the laughable dialogue hardly helps his cause.
Similarly, the storyline is just dreadful. Clearly worked around the desire to find distribution in the US (which failed) and secure the services of a big name star (which worked although one has to wonder what Woods was doing when he chose this role) it’s movie making by numbers and it simply doesn’t work.
Much of the blame for this farce must lie at the feet of the director Lexi Alexander. The early departure of the English writer Dougie Brimson due to a rumoured disagreement about changes she made to the screenplay cannot have helped her cause but that is no excuse. She should be thoroughly ashamed of herself because she had a golden opportunity to produce a cult movie and instead, delivered a turkey. Even more so because she claims to have once been a part of this culture. Yeah right. And I’m a Chinaman.
Avoid this movie like the plague and rent Alan Clarke’s stunning film ‘The Firm’ to see how it should be done.
March 5, 2010
#2
This movie had all the ingredients for a good film, however it never seems to arrive at a point. I felt sorry for the actors they did a good job despite the poor directing that they had to deal with.
If you like Fight Club, then ya’ll love this movie.
lots of blood and pointless violence. If you like Charlie Hunnam? don’t watch this film.
March 5, 2010
#3
This movie was way too slow for my taste and had a very unnecessary love story. If you are looking for a good hooligan movie to watch I recommend you hop on over and buy Football Factory instead. No lovey dovey story line, hilarious jokes and fight scenes which put GSH to shame.
March 5, 2010
#4
Using Frogo Baggins to play a soft Ivy League American who magically discovers his manhood as one ot the top men of West Ham’s Inter-City Firm (ICF) was a casting error that gets the entire DVD off on the wrong foot. My husband and I weren’t buying it.
Unlike THE FOOTBALL FACTORY, which is inspired by Martin King’s books about his life as a hooligan, this seems more inspired by Bill Buford’s “Among the Thugs,” which was 90 percent about a gullible American Anglophile who learned very little about the thugs in his years of tagging along with them.
The movie was more fantasy about belonging and being accepted by true Brit hooligans.
As for the Elijah Wood character, he’s never been in a fight before and then on his first trip to Merry Olde, he wails on a member of Birmingham’s Zulu army? Yeah, yeah… it strained our suspension of disbelief.
We kept trying to figure out why we should care about this Harvard brat.
The movie seems to borrow heavily from Football Factory (about Chelsea’s firm), with the ICF boys waiting in anticipation then yelling in joy when West Ham draws Millwall at home. It also followed one of the thugs as he coached a loveable children’s team, a lot less interesting than THE FOOTBALL FACTORY’S children’s match between clubs coached by a Chelsea fan and a Millwall fan.
Since there are relatively few hooligan movies out in the States and none about the ICF, there was no need to borrow scenes or cover the same ground.
We think they’d have done better just making Cass Pennent’s “Congratulations” or Colin Ward’s “Steaming In” into a movie, or if you absolutely HAD to have an American main character just make Buford’s AMONG THE THUGS into a movie, at least you could laugh at Buford as thugs pull his chain by telling him more and more outrageous stories and laugh behind his back.
So far its the worst of the bunch I think, there’s lots of tears as characters wrestle with their inner feelings, more hollywood than Saturday afternoon football.
If you must have light entertainment rent it, otherwise run out and get THE FOOTBALL FACTORY instead. Be ready to wash out your ears based on the language though!
March 5, 2010
#5
whoever made this bollocks needs a good kickin’
nobody likes us – we don’t care