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Green Street (2005)

Director: Lexi Alexander

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2 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

It used to be nearly impossible for Brits to venture abroad without a chatty foreigner acknowledging our nationality by mock-clenching his fists and exclaiming, ‘Oh yes, football ’ooligans!’ But that was the ’80s. Does it take that long for cinema to catch up with the real world? No, we’ve already had ‘The Firm’, ‘ID’ and ‘Football Factory’ – all better films about football violence. This strong sense of redundancy aside, though, ‘Green Street’ never recovers from a fatal and, frankly, crazy premise. German director Lexi Alexander gives us Elijah Wood as Matt, a Harvard journalism drop-out who becomes a West Ham-supporting football hooligan while visiting his sister (Claire Forlani) in London. Harvard? Hooligan? Elijah Wood? I can understand Wood’s desire to ditch his freaky elf image, but this is beyond credible. And it gets worse. Charlie Hunnam (last seen writhing beneath Aiden Gillen in TV’s ‘Queer as Folk’) delivers a truly appalling performance as Pete, a home-grown Brit thug and Matt’s conduit into hooliganism. Pete is London born and bred, so why does Hunnam’s accent swing violently from Dublin to Sydney, only occasionally stopping on home turf? And the idea that Matt’s background in media studies puts him in mortal danger among his fellow hooligans is no less ludicrous. A disaster (of a) film.

Author: DC 2005-09-06 10:59:54

Time Out London Issue 1829: September 7-14 2005

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User reviews of this film

Thomas Noctor said...

Posted on Sep 17 2009 01:10 In my top 5 favourite movies of all time, this shows the Americans the old tradition of the worlds most bitter rivals. In this 'soccer hooligan' movie we are introduced first to the hard side of these people, then the tender side and finally the desperate side. Wood is brilliant in this much better than he was in the boring Lord of the Rings series. This is a must see!!!!!!!!!!

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Jo said...

Posted on Jun 05 2009 12:50 Could not disagree more. This is one of my favourite films, and I think the performance of Charlie Hunnam is fantastic. A moving and emotional journey of a film. The film is engrossing and great viewing for any working ckass football fan. A fantastic film, with fantastic performances, and the ending is very humbling.

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