Green Street Hooligans - Mobile Edition

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Green Street Hooligans
By Mitch Emerson
November 30, 2006 - 13:39

Writer(s): Lexi Alexander, Dougie Brimson, Josh Shelov
Starring: Elijah Wood, Charlie Hunnam, Claire Forlani
Directed by: Lexi Alexander
Produced by: Paul Schiff, Lexi Alexander, Patrick Aluise
Rating: R (Restricted)

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.