Green Street Review

Elijah Wood goes from Hobbit to hooligan in this pretty nasty movie from debutante German director Levi Alexander. The man known as Frodo plays disgraced journalism student Matt Buckner, who's recently been kicked out of Harvard after a drugs bust. The drugs belonged to a friend but Matt rolled over and took the wrap for his influential roommate, so he hops aboard a flight to London to visit his sister Shannon (Clare Forlani) and her Brit husband Steve (Marc Warren). It's not long before Matt's hanging out with Steve's kid brother Pete (Charlie Hunnam) and up to his neck in booze and blood as part of the GSE - notorious West Ham firm the Green Street Elite.

Where to start? Firstly any decent football fan will pretty much abhor "Green Street". It stands for everything that was bad in the game back in the '70s and '80s (and still is to as much lesser extent today). The yob culture of getting boozed up and then painting the pavement with your oppo's face really isn't something that needs to be celebrated, and while "Green Street" may not glamorise hooliganism as much as Nick Love's "Football Factory" did, it does little to condemn it. At one point Pete compares the rivalry between West Ham and local rivals Millwall to the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians - there's nothing like trivialising world events!

Director Alexander is obviously trying to make some kind of statement about brotherhood and belonging, but do you really want to be part of a family who spend all their time in tear ups? And just what is going on with Hunnam's accent? A native Geordie maybe wasn't the best choice to play an East End hard man.

As you'd expect the screen is over flowing with Burberry, skinheads and claret (both in the colour of West Hams kit and all the blood that flows), which means those who partake in mindless scrapping should flock to cinemas for "Green Street". Hopefully everyone else will have more taste.