| 
Review by: Jack Foley | Rating:
One
IT TAKES a clever director to tackle the issue of football violence
without being seen to glorify it in some way.
Sadly, Green Street shoots hopelessly wide of the target from
the outset, even though its director, Lexi Alexander, was herself
a member of a German football firm for three years while growing
up.
The film features Elijah Wood as a journalism student from America
who becomes seduced by the lure of soccer violence practically
from the moment he steps off the plane in Britain and hooks up
with his sister's brother-in-law, Pete (Charlie Hunnam).
Pete is a member of West Ham's Green Street Elite (GSE), a football
firm that's poised to make a return to the premiership of football
thuggery, and he delights in picking fights whenever and wherever
possible.
But his new friend threatens to de-stabilise the camaraderie
that exists within the GSE, particularly as Pete's second-in-command,
Bovver (Leo Gregory) resents the presence of an outsider.
Matters come to a head when West Ham are drawn against arch-rivals
Millwall in the FA Cup quarter-finals, allowing old scores and
past misdeeds to bubble to the surface.
|
 |
Green Street should have been a hard-hitting
advert for the stupidity and wastefulness of football violence
but instead becomes an appalling buddy movie that's more interested
in playing up the honour and sacrifice of what's involved.
It seems to condone violence more than condemn it and frequently
feels contrived and unreal.
The actual fight scenes are executed in a manner that's designed
to showcase the director's ability rather than the impact of the
violence, while the dubious morality and twisted logic of its
perpetrators is viewed as something to be admired.
Fortunately, the film is so badly acted that it is unlikely to
generate anything but guffaws from the outset.
Wood looks miscast from the beginning while Hunnam is frequently
embarrassing as he tosses around cockney rhyming slang as randomly
and unconvincingly as his punches.
Several of the support players look the part but the movie is
so rooted in cliche that most of their efforts are wasted.
The only thing that's left, therefore, is to show the red card
to Green Street and banish it from memory straight away.
Trailer: Real™
High | Real™
Medium l Real™
Low
Windows™
High l Windows™
Medium l Windows™
Low
Related stories: Lexi
Alexander defends content of film amid controversy
Elijah Wood interview
Charlie Hunnam interview
Warren interview
Leo Gregory interview
|
