best yet on a difficult subject to film

Rating: 7/10 (6 December 2006)

This film tries to get into the shady world of football hooliganism, the film surprisingly succeeds very well.The main character an American played by Elijah Wood is introduced to a new world of violence by his brother in law.This world is full of guys who drink in pubs dedicated to their own teams, each of which is submerged in its own culture and all have their own songs about the clubs they support with a passion.The passion comes through really well i have been in many pubs where spontaneous singing and chanting break out, however i have never been involved in violence .The violence in this film is realistic and definitely for an adult audience, the people involved in the fights are incredibly loyal to each other and have a pecking order, and it seems the most important quality they have is a bond between them, its just a pity that they behave so negatively.A side issue is that these guys are incredibly normal for most of the week, one of the main hooligans teaches children which considering the philosophy of violence he believes in is quite shocking.It must be stressed that hooligans are a small part of English football but the problem has not gone away.