There's not one element of this film that works!

Rating: 1/10 (18 September 2005)

First things first, not one layer of this film worked in my opinion. I really failed to see what the script was getting at. There were times when it was obvious the script intended to glorify football violence, then other moments were it went for the whole "violence solves nothing" idea.
One of my major problems with this movie was why a Hollywood star needed to be involved, or more to the point why the Harvard student had to be involved. It was a pointless layer to the script that could have easily have been substituted with a different character. Added to that, the character of "Matt" seemed to undergo an extremely rapid and unrealistic descent into this gritty violent world, and seemed to instantly gel with a seemingly inhospitable social group.
Although i don't think it fair to draw comparisons usually, i will in the case of this and the far superior "Football Factory". The Football Factory was a film i didn't really enjoy much, or rate highly but it was far more confident in it's story and characters and was far more comfortable in exploring this world then Green Street managed.
With this movie, i felt there was too much of an emphasis on explaining the whole underworld element, and the wider world of football violence never really became evident. Plus, i felt the whole thing was bogged down by the back story involving the rival Milwall firm. I felt with this movie, it was hard to point out a lead character. Who was the focus??? Was it the leader of the GSE with the ever metamorphising accent? Was it his elder brother? Or was it Elijah Wood whose only role in the movie was to go through a cringworthy and clichéd journey??? I just couldn't stand this movie, and i feel like i'll be here forever in trying to put that across. But just to wrap things up...the performances are on the whole terrible and not believable enough, the story is weak, the characters un endearing and ending disappointing. If you want a movie about football violence and that whole suburban society go watch the football factory, if you've seen it and want more of the same, you won't find it here. Utter tripe !