Lexi Alexander's debut feature owes its pint-fueled proletarian angst and aggro to David Fincher and Alan Clarke. Hooligans nods at Fight Club with whip-pan-filled melees and a not-more-than-usual amount of unaddressed homoerotic exclusivity ("What happens at football stays at football"). But in reality, it's rarely about football for the "soccer" hooligan, who privileges pre-arranged beat-downs over bicycle kicksan irony that the film's punch-up porn problematically acknowledges. Enlisting Nicholas Nickleby and a hobbit to play a hard East Ender and his Yank protégé seems ludicrous, but Charlie Hunnam is charismatic as a Green Street alpha geezer and Elijah Wood's all wide-eyed innocence as a disgraced Harvard J-student who falls in with the West Ham lads. Hunnam, whose cockney ranges from dodgy to downright Caine-ian, mutes Gary Oldman's bestial mouth-froth (in Clarke's 1988 The Firm), becoming the prettiest, most articulate, bloodthirsty thug ever to put lip to lager. He nicks the film, lock, stock, and something about a barrel. Hooligans loses the plot late thoughin the filmic and Brit-speak senserevealing Hollywood, not hooligan, roots.
*indicates required fields. Please enable browser cookies before filling out this form. All reader comments are subject to our Terms of Use. By clicking Add Comment, you acknowledge that you have reviewed and agree to these Terms.
Comments may take a few minutes to process and appear on the site. Please do not click the "Add Comment" button again while your comment is being added.
zak70smith 06/28/2008 4:52:26 PM
I saw some updates and soft for it at http://megauploadfiles.com/