Green Street Hooligans (2005)

46% of critics liked it
(61 reviews)
87% of users liked it
(204,567 ratings)

An American abroad is introduced to the heady but dangerous pleasures of violence in this powerful drama from Great Britain. Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) 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… More An American abroad is introduced to the heady but dangerous pleasures of violence in this powerful drama from Great Britain. Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) 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 (Claire Forlani), who has married British Steve Dunham (Marc Warren). As it happens, Matt arrives at a less than opportune moment, and he ends up spending his first evening in the U.K. with Steve's brother Pete (Charlie Hunnam). 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 (Matt quickly discovers calling British football "soccer" is an easy way to get your teeth knocked out). 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. The debut feature film from British director Lexi Alexander, Green Street Hooligans (initially shown simply as Hooligans) was the first film ever to win both the Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the South by Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Play Trailer

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 46 min.
Directed By: Lexi Alexander
Written By: Lexi Alexander, Dougie Brimson, Josh Shelov
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Sep 16, 2005 Limited
On DVD: Jun 13, 2006
Studio: Freestyle Releasing

Critic Reviews

Bob Longino, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It swims and sinks in melodrama.
John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press
There's a good movie to be made about the violent world of British soccer, or football, as it's called on the other side of the pond. This isn't it.
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
The script is a jumble of caricatures and cliches.
Desson Thomson, Washington Post
Soccer needs this movie like Georgia needed Deliverance.
Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic
It's what you thought Fight Club was going to be, before it went in a whole other (and far more interesting) direction.
Joe Leydon, Variety
Pic amply demonstrates that Alexander -- director of Johnny Flynton, 2003 Oscar nominee for dramatic short -- has the chops to bring a fresh take to onscreen rough stuff.
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena
Hunnam e Wood exibem imensa segurança ao carregarem o filme, que também desperta nosso interesse através da análise dos motivos que levam pessoas comuns à violência das torcidas organizadas.
Jeff Vice, Deseret News, Salt Lake City
Green Street Hooligans loses any credibility it might have had the minute it tries to pass off Elijah Wood as a tough guy.
Phil Villarreal, Arizona Daily Star
Nothing hits harder, or with less tact, than the overriding message, that Matt is really looking for a surrogate family.
Shawn Levy, Oregonian
At least three writers collaborated on a script that drums out loudly its themes of loyalty, honor and revenge, and the finished product dances quickly enough between cliches to make for passable entertainment.
Duane Dudek, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
[Alexander] is a better anthropologist than dramatist and her snapshot of this culture is more revealing than the story crafted around it.
David N. Butterworth, rec.arts.movies.reviews
German kickboxer-turned-director Lexi Alexander's brutal, unsparing portrait of disaffected youth running rampant amid the football stands and terraces of jolly old England.
Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle
Approaches the sociologically poetic sloganeering of the Smiths at Morrissey's most hooligan-lovestruck.
Gary Thompson, Philadelphia Daily News
We learn that violence is bad, except when it feels good, or helps solve our problems.

Read all 14 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

Mike S

Superb acting and very emotional drama. You immediately get sucked into the story. Additionally, it also has great pacing and a highly intriguing storyline. Final rating: a weak "4" from me.
Phil H

Along the same kinda lines as 'The Football Factory' but nowhere near as gritty and in your face, this film suffers from a slight case of Hollywood glitz. Not just because Elijah Wood is in it, that is one reason of course, but the violence just seems more coordinated and… More
Along the same kinda lines as 'The Football Factory' but nowhere near as gritty and in your face, this film suffers from a slight case of Hollywood glitz. Not just because Elijah Wood is in it, that is one reason of course, but the violence just seems more coordinated and setup haha whilst the many British actors in the film all have rather hokey cockney accents which are rather forced, some not all. The film centres around West Ham United Firm 'GSE: Green Street Elite' although the real firm is called 'ICF: Inner City Firm' and follows the guys around as they go to matches and plan on fights with rival firms. Nothing much different from other 'firm' flicks but the added plot of Yankee Wood who slowly fits in against his UK based sisters wishes and grows to enjoy the lifestyle. No one really that well known in the film accept Wood who is TOTALLY out of place in this type of flick but I guess that's the idea right. Only thing is you simply can't see Wood ever getting tough enough to do what he does in the film, never in a month of Sundays. Good entertainment but using allot of artistic license and second best to 'The Football Factory' and 'The Firm'....if your into these types of films.
Brad W

Green Street Hooligans is one of those rare films where we get are glad we watched it and is probably Elijah Woods best performance (besides LOTR).
Eric A

Being a FOOTBALL fan, I love this movie; tt's Fight Club meets football. The only flaw of this film is Elijah Wood. His acting skills are very poor and I feel they could have done a better job with casting.
Thomas J

Combining a passion with sports with a taste for violence. Fight Club combined with sports fanatics! lol Great movie! Very powerful story supported with equally strong performances!
Randy T

If you're looking for a film about football (or soccer) you're going to be severely disappointed. Green Street Hooligans isn't about sports at all, it's about firms and families and the sense of belonging to something tangible and real.… More
If you're looking for a film about football (or soccer) you're going to be severely disappointed. Green Street Hooligans isn't about sports at all, it's about firms and families and the sense of belonging to something tangible and real. It's also about machismo and man's self-destructive nature and how hard it is to make Elijah Wood look tough and menacing.
Drew S

This movie is shockingly fucking stupid. It's almost serviceable as an anthropological capsule, because I really wanted to learn more about the firms, but according to actual members of firms it misrepresents them and paints them as far more violent than they actually are. I… More
This movie is shockingly fucking stupid. It's almost serviceable as an anthropological capsule, because I really wanted to learn more about the firms, but according to actual members of firms it misrepresents them and paints them as far more violent than they actually are. I wouldn't exactly rush to believe them, as I could easily imagine football fans being a savage and reckless lot, but Green Street Hooligans is a nonstop celebration of their relentless idiocy. The violence is presented as brutal, sure, but is the movie's aim really to get us to tsk-tsk at the brutality? Of course not; it's frenetically paced and edited Bourne-style to try and amp us up as much as possible. The movie is a hotshot of testosterone first and a morality tale second, which isn't an approach that necessarily fails, except for Hooligans' woebegone attempts to redeem itself in the third act. The cliches, present in scattered bursts through the first two thirds, come roaring into play here. Cut and paste scriptwriting at its ugliest. My problems with Green Street Hooligans could continue - perhaps the greatest of which is the casting of Elijah Wood, who's a great fit for his character's baby steps but just doesn't have the edge to suggest a transformation into someone rough or angry. Really, though, the movie is too boring to complain about. It's a hyper-typical loss of innocence tale interspersed with some dull stylized violence to lure us away from the incredibly simple moral messages. This will probably fly with an unjaded teenage boy or a football fan, but its niche success indicates its overall lack of appeal.
♥˩ƳИИ &

Elijah Wood, Charlie Hunnam, Maro Warren, Claire Forlani, Leo Gregory, Rafe Spall, Kieran Bew, David Alexander, David Carr, Joel Beckett, Geoff Bell DIRECTED BY: Lexi Alexander After being wrongfully expelled from Harvard University, American Matt Buckner flees to his… More
Elijah Wood, Charlie Hunnam, Maro Warren, Claire Forlani, Leo Gregory, Rafe Spall, Kieran Bew, David Alexander, David Carr, Joel Beckett, Geoff Bell DIRECTED BY: Lexi Alexander After being wrongfully expelled from Harvard University, American Matt Buckner flees to his sister's home in England. Once there, he is befriended by her charming and dangerous brother-in-law, Pete Dunham, and introduced to the underworld of British football hooliganism. Matt learns to stand his ground through a friendship that develops against the backdrop of this secret and often violent world. 'Green Street Hooligans' is a story of loyalty, trust and the sometimes brutal consequences of living close to the edge. A powerful story of England Football and their intense fans. I am really surprised at how much I loved this movie. I didn't know if I would not being a fan of soccer (football). But the movie is about so much more then that. The hooligans are a brotherhood and loyalty. I was surprised that Elijah Wood was cast in this type of movie. But what is more surprising is how well he pulled this character off. Great job by him. Charlie Hunnam was fantastic in this film. The fight scenes are really intense and bloody. They were very realistic. Just a great film. Totally worth the watch.
Jeremy S

Stand your ground and fight. A smahing film (excuse the pun, what pun?) really gets you in and gives you a chav style shake up.
Wahida K

OUTSTANDING!
Conner R

A great story and beautifully shot. This has a great raw feeling to it, perfect for the subject matter. It is essentially a very well done b-movie about street fighting gangs. The acting is great and one of Elijah Woods best performances post LOTR.
Lorenzo v

"Stand Your Ground And Fight." A wrongfully expelled Harvard undergrad moves to London, where he is introduced to the violent underworld of football hooliganism. <center>"Stand Your Ground And Fight." A wrongfully expelled Harvard undergrad moves to London, where he is introduced to the violent underworld of football hooliganism. <center>REVIEW</center> Not too cliché though it ends up being a hollow melodrama; the finished product dances between loyalty, horror and revenge but it manages to capture this terrible element of British society. Violence is relentless and extreme, making the entertainment fulfilling but the story has a lot of energy. Hooliganism is depicted as intoxicating and the "yankee" transformation looks real, as well as the violence defense and its final condemnation. Don't remember a film dealing with this kind of neighborhood wars. It's certainly a gritty drama and well acted, a portrait of young destroying their lives that makes sense for sure. The acting is surprisingly strong with Elijah Wood, Charlie Hunnam, Lee Gregory and Claire Forlani delivering performances usually only seen from the big boys. Much of the credit must go to director Lexi Alexander who shows a real flair for tension-filled scenes and getting the most out of an actor. It is a bit of a coming of age story for wimpy Wood as Matt, a journalist major at Harvard who gets expelled when he won't fight the drug charges that his roommate sent him up with. The rest of the film is Wood's search for his backbone. Hunnam proves to be an exciting and dynamic leader of men, who actually does have a soul ... even if it is a bit misguided. Forlani flashes her most expressive eyes and does a great deal with her limited role here. Check this one out and spread the word on this hidden gem. The action is good, the dialogue is fast and fun and checking out the world of football firms is also very interesting.
Alexander W

For a movie its got a good story and sturdy acting and is pretty interesting the main audience and those that get the main juicy bits from the story will probably be ivy league yanks. But come on, is his accent some joke or is that part of his character. "It sounds like bloody… More
For a movie its got a good story and sturdy acting and is pretty interesting the main audience and those that get the main juicy bits from the story will probably be ivy league yanks. But come on, is his accent some joke or is that part of his character. "It sounds like bloody awful mate isn't it," I think not
Manu G

Great movie!!! Lots of cool fights, adrenaline pumps thru your veins, i Luv it!! After being wrongfully expelled from Harvard University, American Matt Buckner flees to his sister's home in England. Once there, he is befriended by her charming and dangerous brother-in-law, Pete… More
Great movie!!! Lots of cool fights, adrenaline pumps thru your veins, i Luv it!! After being wrongfully expelled from Harvard University, American Matt Buckner flees to his sister's home in England. Once there, he is befriended by her charming and dangerous brother-in-law, Pete Dunham, and introduced to the underworld of British football hooliganism. Matt learns to stand his ground through a friendship that develops against the backdrop of this secret and often violent world. 'Green Street Hooligans' is a story of loyalty, trust and the sometimes brutal consequences of living close to the edge.
Dan S

Initially involving story concerning an unjustly expelled student (Wood) who becomes friend's with his brother in-law's brother (Hunnam). For 3/4 of the way through, this is a good movie, with gritty, dirty action taking place amongst the club's firms. The last 1/4… More
Initially involving story concerning an unjustly expelled student (Wood) who becomes friend's with his brother in-law's brother (Hunnam). For 3/4 of the way through, this is a good movie, with gritty, dirty action taking place amongst the club's firms. The last 1/4 however falls on to Hollywood cliches, with an ending battle that has more blood spit-shots captured than I've possibly ever seen. Hunnam is extremely impressive however, with Wood proving to be a fine fit.
Tim S

Fuck this movie. The half of a star goes to the fact that I can't give it 0 stars. Elijah Wppd is awful outside of anything that doesn't take place in Middle Earth (and he's questionable at best there). I wanted to beat the shit out this guy from the first frame and you… More
Fuck this movie. The half of a star goes to the fact that I can't give it 0 stars. Elijah Wppd is awful outside of anything that doesn't take place in Middle Earth (and he's questionable at best there). I wanted to beat the shit out this guy from the first frame and you expect me to believe that he is some kind of disenchanted youth who escaped Harvard to join the rough and tumble world of hard soccer fans who like to start fights with each other (I thought Cowboy fans were bad, but if this is how they watch soccer in England they really have a lot more in common with rednecks than they would think). I'm sure ol Elijah got a kick out of trying to be European and doing something nitty and gritty, but there are scenes that are obnoxiously terrible. Including the fact that the entire third act of the movie hinges on them portraying a guy who lost his twelve year old son to Elijah's merry band of mischief makers as a villain. Fucking retarded on every level.
Khris N

Great movie. If u like Brit movies, football and understand the lingo - and amongst all that is a story with friendship, honor and pretty much stepping up and facing everything head on for what you believe in - football. You can find the deepest part of your soul and integrity in… More
Great movie. If u like Brit movies, football and understand the lingo - and amongst all that is a story with friendship, honor and pretty much stepping up and facing everything head on for what you believe in - football. You can find the deepest part of your soul and integrity in mindless violence - but as it shows, there is a time to fight, and a time to walk away.
Lenny M

Elijah Wood always feminine even when fighting in England with the football hooligans, great movie, good script, good shit.
Curtis L

Halfway decent. Crazy and retarded if this stuff really happens, but the movie had some honorably brutal fight sequences.
Sarah G

Director:Lexi Alexander Released: 2005 Stars: Charlie Hunnam, Elijah Wood, Marc Warren and Rafe Spall Genre: Crime/Drama Country: UK/USA <a… More
Director:Lexi Alexander Released: 2005 Stars: Charlie Hunnam, Elijah Wood, Marc Warren and Rafe Spall Genre: Crime/Drama Country: UK/USA <a href="http://s137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/sarah88_uk/?action=view&current=greenstreet.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/sarah88_uk/greenstreet.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> After Harvard student Matt Buckner (wood) is wrongfully expelled he then decides to visit his sister in England Shannon (forlani) while in the process meets his sisters husband Steve Dunham (warren) and his little brother Pete Dunham (hunnam) and the two quickly become friends but only until the next day that after going to watch West Ham United v Birmingham City and being involved in a fight between the two teams firms that he finds out that his new cockney friend is in fact the violent top boy (leader) of West Ham's hooligan firm the GSE (green street elite) but despite this fact finds himself getting involved along with a reputation and what no university can teach him, he learns to fight, confidence, and most importantly he learns to stand by his friends no matter what the consequences in this gritty violent story of hooliganism, respect, and friendship. Review to follow in a bit...