Not very convincing

Rating: 3/10 (23 February 2007)

I cannot understand at all the accolades I see on this site for this movie. It was total sh*te as far as I am concerned, and I usually love this sort of thing. Dunnam's accent was so off base that nothing ever rang true in the film after his first scene. The American kid getting chucked out of Harvard for something that he never done, and never fighting it because the guy was a WASPy big shot, was as unbelievable as Pete's accent. And why did the sister show up at the fight - with the kid! - at the end! There was no feeling of authentic menace to this film at any time. It smacked of a kind of made-for-TV fantasy of English football hooligan life made by an American director who had never been within 10 miles of the East End. So many unbelievable scenes; the whole thing was ridiculous from start to finish. This needed to be directed by someone like Mike Leigh or Stephen Frears. There were some good performances by the real East End lads, but the director's tin ear for the proper language and tone of the scene she was trying to capture was an impediment that the movie could never overcome. See anything with Gary Oldman instead.