Green Street Hooligans - ACE Train Movie Review

Matt Buckner is a journalism student from America who is expelled from college when his roommate sets him to take the fall after drugs are found in their dorm room. Needing time to sort out what his next move should be, Matt travels to London to visit his sister Shannon, who has married British Steve Dunham. Matt ends up spending his first evening in the U.K. with Steve's brother Pete. Pete hangs out with a "firm" of friends who call themselves "the Green Street Elite" and are passionate fans of the West Ham United football club. Pete has little use for Matt until the Green Street Elite get into a dust-up with another firm; Matt turns out to be a fierce if inexperienced fighter, and discovers he enjoys the kick of street brawling. Matt is cautiously accepted by Pete and the other members of the firm, and is soon absorbed into the very British world of violent football fandom. But when Pete and his friends learn that Matt studied journalism, they begin to suspect he's a reporter doing an undercover piece on hooliganism, and they set out to teach him an ugly lesson about loyalty.

This is a violent and bloody film. Not that I'm against that sort of thing, but Elijah Wood is a bit of a stretch to play a violent hooligan. He just doesn't look like a hooligan and it's awkward to see him beating people up. The rest of the hooligans are completely believable and make up for Elijah Wood's "toughness." With that aside, it's not a bad film and there's plenty of action to keep you entertained. Some of the fight scenes are so real that you can hear noses being broken and teeth being lost. Not for the faint of heart, but an intense depiction of passionate soccer (oops, I mean football) fans and their "firms."

Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Would I watch it again: No
Starring: Elijah Wood, Charlie Hunnam, Claire Forlani

I typically watch movies on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while riding the ACE Train from Tracy to Santa Clara. The opinions expressed are those of me, myself and I.