"We're the hooligans..."

Rating: 5/10 (23 June 2006)

Could anyone else not stop thinking of Bill Hicks' hilarious bit mocking the hooligans as peter pan versions of L.A. gangs when watching this movie? Well, the thing is this flick portrays them just like that. The first half of "Hooligans" plays like "Fight Club" with Brits, the second one is ridiculously dramatic.
The whole thing is about as realistic as "West Side Story". The story is so predictable and the characters so clichéd, it's hard to take "Hooligans" seriously. From the ex-hooligan leader who can't finish with his old life, to his good-hearted brother, the Judas-character who switches from good to bad and back again, the brutal villain and the slippery snob... those characters could have jumped right out of a musical. Hell, "The Warriors" had more balls than this movie! And who the hell picked a song that sounds like "Brothers In Arms II" for the final fight sequence? Who chose puppy-faced Elijah Woods for the role of a guy who gets a vicious appetite for destruction? The worst part is the message "Hooligans" conveys, which is that hooligans are really just people full of honor, not afraid to stand up for themselves or their comrades. Sure, some of them are misguided now and then and the whole lifestyle really isn't all there should be to life (one needs to know when to walk away from it), but all in all they're really good guys. Er, yeah right... Does being a hooligan also mean that you don't need a job? Because none of the characters ever seems to work or have any money problems. One thing's for sure, though, they HATE journos! *ooooooooohhhh*
The fast pacing makes "Hooligans" watchable, but this piece definitely isn't a convincing depiction of violence in the UK, nor does it give any conclusive insight into that milieu. If Andrew Lloyd Webber had bothered to write some music for it, "Hooligans" would have made a damn good Broadway show.