Hooligans (2005)

GREEN STREET HOOLIGANS: In 1988, British director Alan Clarke set a high benchmark for movies about soccer hooliganism with a brutal, unflinching drama called THE FIRM. Few dared follow in Clarke's estimable footsteps. But filmmaker Lexi Alexander, who joined a gang of soccer thugs during her childhood in Germany, seems well placed to be the director of GREEN STREET HOOLIGANS, which returns to the controversial subject matter some 17 years after Clarke's film. Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) is a student who travels to London after getting kicked out of Harvard. Ostensibly there to visit his sister, Matt instead forms...
Read more

an unlikely bond with her husband's brother, Pete Dunham (Charlie Hunnam), who takes him to a soccer match to see his team, West Ham. At the game, the inevitable happens, and Matt's initial trepidation at the violence swelling around him soon turns into a pulse-racing, visceral thrill. Suddenly finding a taste for the hooligan life, Matt joins Pete's "firm," the Green Street Elite, leading to further booze-fueled confrontations and providing an opportunity for Matt to keep a journal explaining why he's attracted to such a violent pursuit.

Surprisingly, Elijah Wood manages to fit perfectly into a role that seems ill-suited to his elfin, wide-eyed looks. British actor Charlie Hunnam, who starred in the U.K. version of QUEER AS FOLK and TV's UNDECLARED, neatly complements Wood as the Cockney boy who leads him into danger, and together the two actors manage to carve out convincingly violent characters. A loud, energetic soundtrack and roaming, trembling camera work create a disquieting atmosphere in a movie punctuated with scenes of rampant brutality. Sensibly not trying to ape Alan Clarke's approach to the subject matter, Alexander has instead created a very effective work built on her own experience.
Read less..

Set jinni.com as default synopis Visit jinni.com

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...
Read more

(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.
Read less..

Set AllMovie.com as default synopis Visit AM

Matt Buckner is een Amerikaanse student aan Harvard, maar wordt na een incident van school gestuurd. Hij reist naar zijn zus Shannon in Londen en komt al snel in contact met Pete Dunham, de broer van Shannon's echtgenoot. Het duurt niet lang voor Matt zich aansluit bij de harde kern van West Ham United, onder leiding van Pete en hij komt terecht in de keiharde strijd tussen de hooligans van West Ham en die van Millwall.

Set MovieMeter.nl as default synopis Visit MM