No more authentic than a Hugh Grant movie

Rating: 6/10 (22 December 2010)

A middle class American journalism student is caught up in the exciting world of British working class violence. The brits are a bit sceptical that he is man enough but after proving himself in a few brawls he's accepted as a proper geezer.
The problem with this film is not that it "glamorizes violence" but that it serves up the 'violent English working class' as a cultural artifact for US consumption. America famously 'has no working class' and US audiences are therefore fascinated by a society where a combative working class is part of the culture, along with the Queen and red telephone boxes. But the version of UK life given here is in fact no more authentic than that found in those other films designed for US export starring Hugh Grant and his floppy fringe (4 Weddings, Notting Hill etc..)