Hooligans

Me and my friend almost got mugged the other week. We were walking to our cars after a movie, and this guy comes up to us and after the usual blubbering about current events (in this case the NBA Finals) he asked us for money for cigarettes. I said no, my friend said no, and the guy said thanks and left. Ok, not even close to get mugged, but that's what we wanted, cause the movie we had just watched was Hooligans, and we were thirsty for some blood.

Elijah Wood stars as Matt, a Harvard student who gets wrongfully expelled and so he leaves the country and goes visit his sister (Claire Forlani) in West Ham, England. In his first day there, he meets his sister's husband's brother Pete, played by Charlie Hunnam, a tough guy who introduces Matt to his life, the life of the hardcore football supporters of the city's team, West Ham United, a life full of pride for their colors, and most importantly, violence.
Matt is a scared kid who's never been in a fight in his life, so the idea of a brutal brawl between a hundred people all throwing punches at the same time at him was not something he wanted to experience, but when he gets hit in the face for the time, it all changes. "Once you realize you're not made of glass...", and so Matt enters this world, hooligans as they're known everywhere in the world. They're not gangs though, as Pete explains to him, they're called "Firms", theirs the Green Street Elite (or GSE) and they don't use guns, its pure street fighting.

Many people have been complaining about Elijah being in the lead here, a violent movie, when he looks so fragile. But that's the beauty of it, that's the way it's supposed to be. He's perfect for the role, cause when you see him you can easily tell that he's never been in a fight, and so his change after he starts fighting (and liking it) in the movie is totally realistic.
The real star of the movie is Charlie Hunnam though, who exudes so much charisma as the leader of the GSE, and his fighting is just awesome. Leo Gregory is also great as Bover, the crazy one of the group, a guy so in love with the Firm that he's willing to do anything to keep it the way it's always been, and so he's not happy about Matt, a weak American who calls the sport by a different name, and he's specially not happy with him after he learns that Matt used to be a journalist in Harvard. Journalists are despised by the Firms, who are underground movements that journalists are always trying to infiltrate to report on.

Directed by Lexi Alexander (a girl!) who also wrote the script with Dougie Brimson and Josh Shelov, Hooligans is a fantastic, brutal story with violence shown in the style of movies like Fight Club, filmed right there in the faces of the characters. And these get hit multiple times and all you see are bloody teeth and all you hear are bones getting broken, and it's awesome. Maybe someone will try to mug me next week and the Hooligan inside of me will come out, I hope.