Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1292 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-12-26
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 105 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
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 stylised fight sequences. Consequently, humour 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

Synopsis
Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) is a student who travels to London, where he forms an unlikely bond with his sister’s husband's brother, Pete Dunham (Charlie Hunnam), who introduces him to the world of football hooliganism. Violence breaks out at a West Ham game that Matt attends with Pete and Matt's initial trepidation at the violence swelling around him soon turns into a pulse-racing, visceral thrill. Suddenly finding a taste for the hooligan life, Matt joins Pete's "firm," the Green Street Elite, leading to further booze-fuelled confrontations and providing an opportunity for Matt to keep a journal explaining why he's attracted to such a violent pursuit. Surprisingly, Elijah Wood manages to fit perfectly into a role that seems ill-suited to his elfin, wide-eyed looks. Charlie Hunnam--who starred in the television programmes Queer As Folk and Undeclared--neatly complements Wood as the cockney boy who leads him into danger, and together the two actors manage to carve out convincingly violent characters. Thematically similar to The Football Factory, Green Street mixes loud, energetic soundtrack and roaming, trembling camera work to create a disquieting atmosphere in a movie punctuated with scenes of rampant brutality.

Customer Reviews

A British Comedy Classic!
I've given Green Street top marks because by every fault of its own it is one of the finest comedies of recent years. Almost everything about this film is side-splittingly funny, from the totally implausible storyline, the unbelievable characters, the dubious and Pwropa Nawty Cockney accents to the over-the-top 'performances'. I kept expecting Dick Van Dyke to turn up as a pub landlord - 'awlwight, lads, now pipe down will ya?'
This is unintentional laughter, wince inducement and a belly laughfest from start to finish - from the ill-advised casting of Elijah Wood in the main role to a late scene - a fight between rival firms - where Clare Forlani arrives to save the day in her Range Rover. This is laugh-out loud stuff and deserves to become a modern comedy classic. I can't wait for some inspired impresario to turn it into a West End musical. Perhaps the funniest thing is the producers' intention for it to be taken seriously. Amazingly, in some places it is even being sold in a boxset with Scorsese's 'GoodFellas'. Isn't that a bit like packaging 'Henry: Portrait of A Serial Killer' with 'Sleepless in Seattle'? Pwropa Nawty!

Violent but Predictible
Innocently expelled from Harvard, Matt moves to stay with his sister in London where his brother-in-law decides that his uselessness as a fighter means that he can be taken to the match. Matt is quickly initiated into a world of beer, swearing and violence and is seduced by the camararderie of the West Ham fans and the rush of the violent fights at the end of the match.
The film cheerfully explores every stereotype of the football hooligan, portraying a macho culutre where standing by your mates is all that matters. The film's plot is predictible and too many characters are one-dimensional and charmless. This means that the slower sections of the film lack interest whilst the use of dull grey and black shades mean that this film is visually bleak.

Can you Adam and Eve it?
I saw this on TV last night and had to turn it off after 35mins.

After nearly choking to death while laughing.

Unlike many people I don't have a major problem with the plot or cast. Aspects could have been better but they could have been a lot worse as well.

No, my main issue came with Charlie Hunnam's accent. For some reason he ends up delivering a world tour of incompetence. We're taken all around the UK then into South Africa and finally we stop off for a few days down under. Epic.

Why did the director let him continue? I can only conclude that to her Germanic/Yank ears it all sounded 'proper'? I wouldn't recommend you buy this but if it's on the box try and catch five minutes, priceless.