Hooligans

It took me ages to finally force myself into watching the Hooligans, but now I must say that it was really worth it. Wood pretty briskly shook off the Baggins’ image and I’m really grateful for that. It would be a shame if he ended up typecast. As a “brawler" he is just perfect. Lexi Alexander, the female director, made a great impression. Maybe unexpectedly great. The fights are excellent, raw and pulsing with necessary energy and at the same time she manages the psychological side of the movie well and keeps good track of the story line. What more to say. I’m glad I saw it and will happily watch it again sometime. W-H-U! (04/25/2007)

A simple subject that we’ve seen a hundred times before, set in the unusual environment of rival British football hooligans. The film has ferociousness, the fights are shot briskly and clearly, the dramatic relationships between the characters work and the presence of the more commercial icons Elijah Wood and Claire Forlani freshens up the indie feel of this low-budget production. (01/22/2006)

It's billed as a low-budget indie, but it’s packed with interesting acting names that don't disappoint. The straightforward story about wild football fans is entertaining, brisk and properly raw, helped by a good setting and decently filmed brawls. It doesn't have a deeper meaning and the ending is clichéd, but Hooligans does have a certain power of the moment at times. As a directorial debut, OK. (05/16/2022)

A somewhat shallow insight into a world where the ordinary citizen cannot get to and a normal thinking person perhaps does not even want to get to. I am simply not impressed by the issues surrounding football rowdies. I don't understand their caste into clans, their identification with a club that they are willing to defend even at the cost of violence, I don't understand why they are so willing to beat the shit out of each other, why they directly arrange fights with other clans, and this film certainly didn't clarify it for me, even though in the words of one of the main protagonists, Pete, it tried to bring me closer to the mindset of these guys with an excess of testosterone. It's artfully and realistically shot with an impressive atmosphere, it has superb performances (Charlie Hunnam rocks), but it's shallow. And Wood's confession and thank you towards his bully mentor at the very end is tear-jerking (and I don't mean touching). (03/24/2006)

Football hooligans are nuts, but they're actually just people too. They have their own dramatic stories, and Green Street Hooligans focuses on one such story. What a prosaic title. Frodo comes to Britain to learn what football is all about. It seems to be a gang of crazy people watching it. Yet the film is not about football at all. The director managed to capture dramatic moments well. On the other hand, it's still just a somewhat classic fairy tale about how sometimes a person has to completely break down to understand how this world really works. (12/16/2013)