Green Street Hooligans
Freestyle Releasing | Release Date: September 9, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
10
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Then I realized the movie's point is that someone like this nerdy Harvard boy might be transformed in a fairly short time into a bloodthirsty gang fighter. The message is that violence is hard-wired into men, if only the connection is made. Read full review
80
Film ThreatDon R. Lewis
A great film because of it's realism and the ability to show viewers a world that exists even today, but not everyone knows about. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
Director and co-writer Lexi Alexander choreographs the fight scenes with thrilling chaos, and the plot unfolds expertly if melodramatically. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen Johnson
Terrific. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The movie, though, is nonsense. At its most credible, the story evokes fond memories of the adult drug narcs hiding among American high schoolers on ''21 Jump Street." Read full review
70
VarietyJoe Leydon
Unvarnished verisimilitude, visceral impact and vividly evoked emotional and physical extremes distinguish Hooligans, the impressive debut feature by German-born helmer Lexi Alexander. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Playing something of a cipher who reinvents himself as the occasion demands, Wood is unusually well cast, but it's Hunnam, with a psychotic twinkle in his eye, who turns the movie on whenever he's onscreen. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
At its best when it goes down to the pub and captures, quite flawlessly, the grotty intoxication of these mad, bad, dangerous-to-know Hammers fans hoisting incalculable pints. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's a handsome and spry movie, and it might even have managed to be a good one if there were even the least chance of believing that Wood, who can't weigh 145 pounds dripping wet, had the slightest chance of hurting anyone with one of his wee fists. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Wood is compelling, but Charlie Hunnam ("Nicholas Nickleby") is the one to watch. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeFore
Viewers hoping to understand the senseless phenomenon of football hooliganism would do better to rent Alan Clarke's nearly 20-year-old "The Firm." Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
It loses its superficial charm during a labored third act that gets bogged down in tired, groan-inducing subplots. Read full review
50
Village VoicePeter L'Official
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. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Green Street Hooligans, an accidental advertisement for Alcoholics Anonymous and the somnolent pleasures of cricket that, in the end, is mostly about the pleasures, both visceral and visual, of violence. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Serves up a lot of bone-crushing violence in an offbeat context with considerable style and energy, but the steady diet of brutal street fighting makes it all but impossible to connect with this picture, despite whatever visceral appeal it may offer. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The gentle Wood isn't very convincing as a bare-knuckle brawler (which bodes ill for his forthcoming role as Iggy Pop), and the movie settles into a payback soap opera reminiscent of "West Side Story." Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
The world of football riots seems rife with potential for the big screen, but Green Street Hooligans only periodically rises to it. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A silly melodrama. Read full review
42
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
It becomes simply another banal gang film so familiar and predictable you have to wonder why so much potential is wasted on such a confused dramatic mess. Read full review
40
EmpireChris Hewitt (1)
A surprisingly rose-tinted look at a subculture that really should have been stamped out some time ago. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
This is "Fight Club" without the irony or the metaphysical gaming. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Soccer needs this movie like Georgia needed "Deliverance." Read full review
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