RSS 2.0Hooligans (2005)
Bloody hell, when are Americans going to get enough of rhyming slang? After Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, The Limey, Snatch and a multitude of others, I literally rolled my eyes when American student, Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) received a quick education in cockney rhyming slang in Hooligans. As regular readers will know, I love ‘angry young man’ films, especially ones that take place in Britain, which is why I rented this yesterday. But after having seen The Firm (1988) and The Football Factory (2004), this is a rather measly and predictable offering from German-born director Lexi Alexander.
As with the Harry Potter films, when it comes to portraying British culture in films – please leave it to British filmmakers. This was yet another film in which the British working-class culture and its ‘language’ was portrayed from the perspective of an outsider with little personal experience of it. That makes it feel like a cockney circus side-show for Americans to gawk at.
And then there’s Elijah Wood, like a fish out of water. He plays an American student recently expelled from Harvard who decides to go and visit his sister and her new husband and baby in London. Within a couple of hours he is tagging along to a West Ham United football match with his brother-in-law’s brother, Pete (Charlie Hunnam). He’s thrown into the world of pints of lager, rhyming slang and soon, extreme violence outside the football stadium.
Elijah Wood is more credible as a hobbit than as a Harvard student developing a taste for violence and lager. The interaction with his new-found hooligan friends is also on the verge of credibility for me, but that’s mainly because the Anglo-American differences are so exaggerated by the director. Also, he cannot act smoking a cigarette – he looked like he was forcing himself to suck on a fish-flavoured lollipop.
At first I thought Charlie Hunnam (who plays Pete) was an American actor struggling to keep up his cockney accent as it sounded very forced a lot of the time – but now that I have looked him up on IMDB I see he’s from Newcastle. Perhaps it’s equally hard for an actor with a Northern accent to put on a cockney one as it is for Americans?
The cinematography created a very realistic, depressing and cloudy London atmosphere, but high shutter-speed fight scenes were alas not omitted in this film (they appear to be mandatory in fight scenes nowadays – damn annoying if you ask me). Nevertheless, it was only during some of the fight scenes that I felt anything at all (namely grimacing at the violence). I didn’t care about any of the characters, least of all Elijah Wood’s character or his stupid sister (Claire Forlani) – who does a great deal of crying.
A simplistic and moralistic plot, shallow and predictable characters and the whole Britsh – American thing disappointed me greatly.
suzero (90 posts)Suzanna Noort - TV/video director/editor and multimedia something. Amsterdam, Netherlands
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Did you see Charlie Hunnam’s abs? Need I say more?
Comment by Arjan — Sun July 30, 2006 @ 13:18Yes I did notice his 8-pack!!!!That was pretty amazing, but Arjan, you let yourself get distracted
Comment by suzero — Sun July 30, 2006 @ 14:55Told you so about The Football Factory
I have let this one slide. I could JUST bare Wood as a weirdo killer in Sin City, but as a hooligan… that’s pushing it too much.
Comment by paco — Sun July 30, 2006 @ 20:23Paco, did you ever get to watch The Firm (1988)?
Comment by suzero — Sun July 30, 2006 @ 21:19A part of it, until that copy that I obtained (from someone who shall remain nameless
) sort of died on me.
Gary Oldman is cool, but I expected him to be more “Bigby-like” in this movie.
It reminded me a quite a lot of “Quadrophenia” in terms of feel and atmosphere (which is actually a good suggestion for you to watch -if you haven’t already- since you like these kind of movies).
Will have to watch is completely, though.
Comment by paco — Mon July 31, 2006 @ 1:20Ah… I hope the peson who shall not be named makes another copy for you soon as The Firm really is worth it. Funny you should mention Quadrophenia. I am a huge Who fan and have Quadrophenia on DVD (and VHS… but that’s another story). I love it and have watched it many times (along with Tommy, but that’s not quite the same genre).
Comment by suzero — Mon July 31, 2006 @ 8:53I kinda guessed you would have seen it
Comment by paco — Mon July 31, 2006 @ 11:04i saw Elijah Wood in person and he is about 4′ 9″ Seriously, i have never seen a more petite feminine looking man in my whole life (which Suzero knows is really saying something.) Cast him as a hooligan … i really don’t think so. What a mistake.
Comment by marisa — Mon July 31, 2006 @ 16:05i loveeeee himm..
Comment by johii — Mon February 5, 2007 @ 10:21charlie is so hot =)
kissies
i only watched green street for the first time yesterday and it is brilliant i loved every bit of it i couldnt take me eyes off the tele lol charlie hunnam is fit
Comment by ashli-jo — Thu June 14, 2007 @ 11:31i m an italian girl .. i came from Milan .. i saw hooligans last sunday … i found charlie a real amazing actor ! he made me imagine that real life … one day i ll be an actress .. i hope to act with him ..
Comment by carlotta — Tue July 17, 2007 @ 16:15kisses .. Carly !
omg charlie is grade he is fit 2 fuck id luv to meet him if n e 1 contact me if there b n e way meetin him or n e thin go ahead even if it charlie that adds me
:D:D:D:D:D:D hes fynnnnnnnnnnnnnn 
gansta_gal14@hotmail.com n if charlie adds me thats even better n if he need my numbe 4 n e thin just holla this way lots of hugs n kisses xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Comment by lauren — Fri July 27, 2007 @ 12:49