Another good movie that's marred by some unlikely plot developments. But unlike Deep Impact and Ash Wednesday, none of those difficulties are ridiculous enough to be open for lampooning. Since we learn about the British football hooligan subculture along with the Yank (Elijah's character Matt Buckner), there's no need for pre-knowledge of it to understand the movie. Even if you're sitting there thinking, "I didn't know they played football in England," all will be made clear. In fact, that's who the movie's really made for; Brits who are knowledgeable about the British/European football scene are the people who tend to have the most problems with some of the liberties it takes. The part of the plot that may be the hardest to swallow for Americans is Matt's frame story, before and after his time in London; it does show how Matt changes, but I think a more plausible and integrated story could have been invented without too much effort.

Elijah's acting has been praised the most for a believable transformation of his character throughout the story, probably seen even better in his body language during such neutral actions as walking down the street than in the fight scenes. This is another case where even people who disliked the movie haven't faulted Elijah's acting. The charge of being miscast has been raised, but I don't think it fits; if Elijah seems an unlikely physical type to get caught up in the life of a firm, I think that's exactly the point. The same point that's made when we see the weekday lives of the other weekend members of the Green Street Elite: the appeal could be there for anyone.

Definitely a hard "R" rating, for language and violence (no sex involved - for many of these guys, the violence seems to substitute for sex). There's nothing sanitized or slick about the violence in this movie; war is waged with fists, feet, and an occasional stabbing, and we see what kind of damage can be done to the human body without anyone ever putting a finger on a trigger. There's been a lot of well-deserved praise of the fight scenes. After I'd watched the movie straight through, I went back to take screencaps and was surprised at the "pulled punches" and "convenient cuts" I saw when watching frame-by-frame; none of them were noticeable at regular speed. One thing that hasn't been mentioned much is the artistic camera work during the football matches: both professional level and schoolyard.

Hooligans, as it was called then, won some top awards at American film festivals, but it didn't get enough distribution to find out whether it could have caught on with the general American movie-going audience; in fact, it didn't even play at most art-house theaters. It got much more attention in Britain. Which is too bad, since the movie is made for Americans.

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 [Note: a nonfiction account written by an American-born journalist who did infiltrate a firm], the ultimate dissection of the hooligan mentality.

Mentioned in Amazon.com review:
Among the Thugs (Book by Bill Buford)	Fight Club (Book by Chuck Palahniuk)	Fight Club (Movie on DVD)

Green Street Hooligans: DVD	Green Street Hooligans: Poster