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Green Street Hooligans
By Mitch Emerson
November 30, 2006 - 13:39
Green Street Hooligans tells the
story of Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood), a journalism student at Harvard
who gets expelled because his roommate kept his stash of coke in
Matt's possessions. Matt takes the fall and goes to stay with his
sister Shannon (Claire Forlani). While there he befriends Pete Dunham
(Charlie Hunnam) who is the leader of a futbol fan gang (known as
Firms across the pond) which spend there time beating the ever-loving
shit out of each other. Needless to say they are a bad crowd and are
not the best of influences for young Matt.
I heard about this movie way back
when Howard Stern was still on terrestrial radio. He had Elijah Wood
in the studio still riding on the awesome success of the Lord Of The
Rings Trilogy but wanted to get away from that type of movie. What is
intriguing about this movie is that the Firms are portrayed in a way
that makes them almost honorable, even likeable. I think violence
over a game is stupid (unless it's throwing a PS2 controller at the
TV), but you almost want to be there to defend their honor with
them.
The performances are almost perfect all around. Wood
plays this character well but if he wants to break out from the nice
boy roles he needs to try a little harder and get more roles like the
one in Sin City. The chemistry between Shannon and Steve (Marc
Warren) was almost nonexistent but that was the only issue I
had.
The only complaints I have are-
1. It was hard to
understand a lot of the dialogue due to thick accents, slang and fast
talking. I understand that is my fault and not the movie's.
2.
The damn shaky cam is back (see my Running Scared review) Do they
teach this as mandatory in film school to convey action and
adrenaline? It's just plain irritating if you ask me.
Being a
DVD I might as well mention the extra features, or the lack thereof.
You get a five minute behind the scenes and a music video. That's it.
Pretty lame.
All in all a good, intense film that
shows the insanity and honor of futbol fans without being overly
violent or preachy. If you haven't seen it and want something that
isn't your normal popcorn film, give it a shot.
Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12