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109 MINUTES | FENWAY + HARVARD SQUARE + SUBURBS Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) wasn’t always a scrappy thug prowling the dingy alleys around West Ham United’s Upton Park stadium. The descent into street life began two months earlier, when the preppie Harvard journalism major was expelled after taking the rap for his blue-blooded roommate’s cocaine habit. Matt shows up at his sister’s place in London and befriends her brother-in-law, the "major" of West Ham’s "firm" of ne’er-do-wells. Matt finds a rush in the physical combat and joins the football underground. Green Street Hooligans is a soppy melodrama punctuated by battle scenes staged à la Braveheart. Although Lexi Alexander’s East End saga wants to criticize violence, the sexy cinematography and heavy-metal soundtrack make the fight clubs seem a lot more fun than watching the game. Not to mention watching Frodo play an expatriate football hooligan.
BY MATTIAS FREY
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