Green Street Hooligans (2005)

  Every so often, there will come a movie that for whatever reason, slips through the cracks of mainstream cinema and is left for dead in a direct to video fate.  Most times, there are very good reasons why such a film has been picked to sit on the shelf until somebody comes across it.  This is one of those films.  While it did get release over in England, for some reason it went straight to video over here.  And after watching this movie I can't for the life of me figure out why. 

   In Green Street Hooligans, Elijah Wood stars as Matt Buckner, a young journalism student kicked out of Harvard weeks shy of graduating on a drug bust charge that was rightfully his roommates.  He then goes to England to see his sister, played by Claire Forlani (Mallrats) and sort things out.  Shortly thereafter, he's introduced to his sister's husband's brother, Pete (Charlie Hunnam).  Pete's the leader of the GSE, Green Street Elite, a group of fans of the local football (soccer, to us Americans) team West Ham United.   In a phenomenon we don't see here in the states, football fans like to do two things, watch their team, and fight anyone that disagrees with them.  And soon after Matt gets caught up in the dangerous and exciting world of these "hooligans."

  Lexi Alexander isn't a name known to American film audiences, but it should be.  This movie is one of the better, if not one of the best movies I've watched recently.  Her direction makes the movie feel real, as though the audience isn't watching Matt's misadventures in London, but rather is going on the journey with him.  And the cinematography by Alexander Buono, especially during the sped up fight sequences makes even the most violent fights have an art like quality to them. 

The script however by Lexi Alexander, Dougie Brimson, and Josh Shelov isn't entirely perfect.  The movie has too many characters, they don't get enough screen time to detract from the main story, however without looking the names up on the internet the only two members of the gang I can recall are Charlie and Bower, the rest get lost in the shuffle.   The script can as well get predictable at times, and features cliches as the member of the group that doesn't trust the new guy, someone's secret gets found out, among others, which make it a nearly great film, now just merely really good. 

    The performance to watch for here is Charlie Hunnam,  seen previously over here as the titular character in Nicholas Nickelby a few years ago, he takes what could almost be a cliched character, streetwise thuggish type that takes in the naive outsider, and makes it much more than just a one note performance, a particulary telling moment came when you find out that aside from bieng a football hooligan he teaches kids, and coaches football for them, great scene there with Elijah Wood attempting to goal while the kids just basically kick his ass at the game.   Charlie Hunnam prety much steals this movie, and should be in more things over here, this kid is that good an actor.  

  Elijah Wood does a good job with his role as well, it's nice to see him break away from the Lord Of The Rings type stuff and test himself as an actor in various roles.  And the script, while flawed as I mentioned before, is a great story,  one of my favorite, non fight sequence moments came early on in the film, as Matt bonds with the GSE over a few pints of beer and discussing such American classics as The Karate Kid.   Also,  you really feel for the characters.  The ones who's names you can recall and pay attention to anyway.   

Final

 A lot of films get given the direct to video fate over here, most of them, like I said, deserve it, but every so often, you can find a gem amongst the trash.  This is one of those gems.  Definitely go to your video store and seek this one out.  Till next time, be sure to keep it reel.