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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 1814
Released: June 13, 2006 |
| Our Price: $10.01 |
| Used Price: $5.95 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A wrongfully expelled Harvard undergrad moves to London, where he is introduced to the violent underworld of soccer hooliganism.
DVD Features:
Documentary:The Making of Hooligans
Music Video:"One Blood" Music Video by Terence Jay
Description of Green Street Hooligans:
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, the ultimate dissection of the hooligan mentality. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Green Street Hooligans Reviews:
Pretty bubbles in the air, They fly so high, They reach the sky, And like my dreams they fade and die 
2009-11-09 - When unfortunate circumstances force young Matthew Buckner (Elijah Wood) out of his homeland - we'll call it his shire - he decides to travel to a distant land in search of a new, but possibly dangerous fresh start on life. Little does he know that this new land will have a different language, strange local customs, and an incredibly great potential for danger.
Upon arrival he links up with a great fighter named Pete (Charlie Hunnam) whose lineage traces back to the legendary rulers of previous times. As a leader of men and singer of old folk songs that boost his Green Street Elite gang, his firm of cockney hooligans - most notably his right hand man Bower who has links to current warlord leadership - into a frenzy as they fanatically cheer on the greater numbers of West Ham warriors in their ongoing power and land struggle, for a precious reputation that would dominate all firms. Frail and timid initially, Buckner eventually embraces his violent survival instincts, becoming incrementally invigorated with each successive victory building towards a showdown versus the dark forces of Millwall and their cruel, black-hearted Dark Lord, Tommy Hatcher (Geoff Bell), who wishes to wage war and kill the GSE leadership.
Punctuated by an epic final battle, a cacophony of vicious thudding blows, like a sledgehammer crushing a pile of wet newspaper, the GSE must protect not only their reputation and their firm, but also their loved ones.
Green Street Hooligans is a brilliant look inside the world of English football hooliganism, with powerful yet never gratuitous violence, mesmerizing performances all around, and a heart-wrenching finale that exposes the difficult moral choices presented to those who would defend honor at all costs. I highly recommend this movie.
Fight Club meets Trainspotters 
2009-10-10 - We did not have expect much sliding this movie into our DVD player and as often is the case, you are surprised positively when your expectations are low. The story is told through the eyes of an American Harward journalism major who had recently dropped out of school taking the fall for a rich fellow student.
The environment he met when he landed in England was nothing he had ever seen across the pond - when fanatical support of an English football (not soccer- he learned fast) club was used as an excuse to arrange organized gang fights against opposing teams supporters. Much like in Fight Club the overiding objective of these supporters, organized in something they call 'firms', was not the game itself, but the raw ultra violent fighting that ensued.
The firms (they did not see themselves as gangs) operated as homes for the members and upheld a wapped view on themselves - denouncing random violence on innocents somehow justifying the violence as acceptable in their own minds. Most had real jobs on the side and 'merely' saw this as a hobby dominating their lives after work. The firms did deliver a social system for the members, all of which found respect and loyalty among the other members which even at times appealed to the intellectually superior American visitor.
The characterizations were very realistic with solid acting performances leading the thoughts back to one of my all time favorites, Trainspotting.
This little movie comes highly recommended despite its quite raw violence at times.
Bubbles Pretty Bubbles 
2009-09-01 - I thought this was a pretty good movie. I am a Yank and I know little about football. But I still enjoyed this movie and all the actors although I found it hard to believe that the little Lord of the Rings guy was a badass or became one or could beat up anybody. Still a pretty good flick.
Great movie
2009-08-16 - I punched every bully I've ever encountered after watching this. I highly recommend it. Good motivator.
Great Movie
2009-07-17 - I have a huge movie collection(500+)and this is in my top 50. Not a very well known movie, but very good. It is entertaining and keeps you interested in the main character.
