American view

Rating: 7/10 (21 September 2005)

I'm an American.. huge football fan.. and lived in London for some time. I was really excited to see this movie, but left somewhat disappointed.
It was strong and compelling.. and the acting was great.. particularly Charlie Hunnam. The fight scenes, while clearly disturbing, did not bother me so much. I also thought it was very interesting to learn about the organization of "the firms," etc. I had no idea such a thing existed. I always thought of Hooliganism as a bunch of young drunken idiots, who like to pick fights, etc. Boy was I wrong.
However, the one underlying thing that troubled me was.. Elijah Wood's character just didn't fit in. VERY MINOR SOILER ALERT - A kid who was afraid of his weasel roommate at preppy Harvard ... is all of the sudden mixing it up with hard core British Hooligans, huh? I felt like if the storyline was accurate, Matt would have split the money with Pete right off the bat.. and would have been at the nearest Starbucks six minutes later. End of movie. I kept going back to that in my mind.
Overall though, it certainly was a good movie.. worth seeing.