Green Street (18)
Starring: Elijah Wood, Charlie Hunnam
Well, if you like a bit of bite in a film then Green Street is the one for you!.. Stars Elijah Wood and Charlie Hunnam in this story of violence, adrenaline, loyalty, rivalry and back-street warfare.
Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) moves to London after being kicked out of Harvard University. He doesn't realise the adventure that is coming up for him as he gets sucked into the world of booze, football and violence with London's toughest football firm - The Green Street Elite.
By Chelie
20/02/07
another view.....
A Harvard journalism student, Matt (played by Elijah Wood), is expelled when a random drugs search turns up his room mates stash for which he takes the blame (of course a senator’s son wouldn’t do that sort of thing, so it must be the journalism student!). To “tidy up” the situation, Matt is handed $10,000 to stay quiet and not ask any embarrassing questions, and with this hush money he moves to London to stay with his married sister Shannon (Claire Forlani). It is here he meets the brother-in-law Pete (Charlie Hunnam), a well-respected teacher and dedicated Hammers fan…..who also leads West Ham’s, Green Street Elite. So Matt transforms from prospective Journalist to Football thug.
And that’s where the problems start. It’s an interesting idea for a film, but it isn’t particularly original (see also, The Football Factory, and The Firm), and it isn’t particularly well done. Elijah Woods is a fine actor, and some football hooligans do indeed hold down respectable jobs, and may even be baby faced, but there just isn’t enough for Elijah to work with, the end result is that he’s unconvincing. The second problem is the “mockney” accent sported by Charlie Hunman which simply put, is the worst Cock-er-nee accent since Dick Van Dyke's in Mary Poppins.
The third problem, and ultimately the worst is that it glamorises football hooliganism, the “English Disease” (which actually isn’t just an endemic for the UK, but an international problem), whilst trying to disguise itself as being an “insight”, but falling far short. Personally, and it is only my personal opinion, I could have thought of a million and one things to have done instead of watching this. Go watch something else instead.
