Hooligans

This is the best new movie of any genre that I've seen in many months.

The film really drew me into its world of neighborhood pubs, football supporters, and the dirt-in-the-cracks reality of London. The violence is believable, realistic, graphic, and frightening. As are the consequences of that violence. This film does not glorify hooliganism, it portrays it honestly.

Hooligans doesn't preach about mob mentality, or strength in numbers, rather it gives credit to the strength in the individual that lives up to his commitment to his friends though he may suffer because of it. (That's the best way I could word it without including a spoiler.)

5 Stars; A truly great film, with a powerful story. Beautifully photographed, in London, Wow! The audience was quickly involved, and laughed, started, and gave a standing ovation at the end. Truly a complete film, thank you for having a real ending to the film, which is so rare these days. Never apologize for this film, it is loving, stark, caring, hard, honest, violent, and beautiful. It touches the emotions, and the feeling of not belonging that exists within many of us, and that longing for love and brotherhood, that is not available without some dire costs. The characters were so clearly human, powerful and conflicted one was drawn to care for everything that happened to them and cheer at their triumphs and sit in horror at their losses.

I have recommended that everyone see this film during SXSW. My wife and I were expecting an audience award for the film, which it easily won, however the Jury Award was also won and we were give true appreciation for the jury system at SXSW.

Beautiful photographed, with outstanding music, this production hits all the marks out of the ballpark and should be studied for how powerful film today could be. This is the level of film making I aspire to achieve.

First of all there hasn't been a good film about English Football Hooliganism. Both ID in 1995 and last years FOOTBALL FACTORY either failed to convince or just went down the familiar exploitative road of glamorising the buzz and thrill of violence.

HOOLIGANS as the title suggests depicts what these aforementioned films centre upon with the added value of having a story and characters you care about. There's no avoiding the cliché's as the ranks of these organised gang members are portrayed as gangsters.

Similar to BBC's Gary Oldman drama THE FIRM broadcast in 1986 it also show the characters as normal members of society, family men with respectable jobs. FOOTBALL FACTORY took the extreme and unconvincing scenario that these weekend animals are florist's during the week which might be amusing but the subject matter of organised territorial football hooliganism needs to be given a serious look at.

Fortunately HOOLIGANS portrays this more realistically, sure there's the stereo types in designer clothes (The Chavs) as we call them now where loyalty, respect, revenge, dignity and pride are what they live for, not the enjoyment of the actual sport. This simply acts as the excuse to fight in a traditional gang warfare environment. The prospect of West Ham's cup tie with Millwall brings joy to the faces of both sets of fans.

Casting Elijah Wood is a bold move, he looks like a Choirboy but this adds to the films main storyline of innocence corrupted. The acting is better than average, despite letting his cockney accent slip on occasions, Gang leader Charlie Hunnam shows a genuine mix of anger, aggression and compassion which holds the film together.

This won't win awards but it's refreshing to see a film finally tackling the subject matter that unfortunately has been a shameful factor of Britain's attitude towards football as we are constantly under threat of being disqualified from International tournaments due to the bad behaviour of soccer hooligans.

Let me start off by saying that I absolutely loved this movie. I've been waiting for it to come out in DVD in the United States for a very long time and I was amazed that the movie lived up to my high expectations.

Reading through the comments others have made about this movie, I was shocked that so many people hated it. It seems that many people, mostly Brits, hated the movie because they didn't think it was realistic enough, there were too many clichés, and because Charlie Hunnam's impression of a cockney accent wasn't very good.

I don't get it. First off, this is a fictional movie, not a documentary. I thought the plot of this movie was very compelling. Yes, you do have to suspend your disbelief a bit, but you have to do that for almost every movie made. Some folks simply could not accept Elijah Wood as a tough guy. I agree that it's difficult to picture Frodo as a tough guy, but I thought he did a very good job. I also thought Charlie Hunnam was OUTSTANDING. He has an incredible screen presence and I look forward to seeing him in future movies. Mark Warren was also great. In fact, the entire supporting cast was great in this film. Claire Forlani was great, Leo Gregory was fantastic, all of the guys that played Pete's friends were great (even the guy that played Tommy Hatcher was perfect). GREAT performances all around!!!

This is a great film. I've already ordered a copy for my DVD collection. I've seen it three times and I will watch it again when my copy arrives. It's that good! I give it an 8 out of 10.

This was my favorite movie back in my teens, I still love it and I always will but I do acknowledge it's not perfect. The acting is sometimes way over the top and Charlie Hunnam's London accent is worse than mine and I'm not even a native speaker. The story is simple yet appealing, it's easy to get invested into it. The unlikely event that an American Harvard student moves to London and becoming a football/soccer hooligan is oddly appealing and it made me curious as to what's gonna happen next. I was not completely sold on the drama elements but what this movie lacks in complexity it makes up for in entertainment value. When I saw this for the first time I was on the edge of my seat throughout the entire movie.

If you looking for popcorn entertainment this is the movie for you.

If you looking for a deep story that will stick with you, you may wanna look elsewhere.