Director Alan Clarke who made the seminal film about football hooliganism The Firm has nothing to worry about from Green Street. Probably because he has been dead since 1990.

Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) is a journalism student in Harvard. He is expelled because a stash of cocaine is found in his room. It actually belongs to his roommate who has powerful connections. So Matt takes the fall.

Matt decides to visit his sister in London. His brother in law hooks Matt up with his brother Pete (Charlie Hunnam) to watch a West Ham match. Trouble is Pete is a football hooligan and pretty soon Matt gets hooked in the buzz of the gang punch ups they get involved in.

British football has been mired with hooliganism issues since the 1970s. Green Street seems to be more interested in glorifying violence almost making it look like fun. The story is cliched and one dimensional.

Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) is a studious student in Harvard School of Journalism but is expelled 2 months before graduation when cocaine is found in his room. It actually belongs to his roommate but he decides not to fight his roommate's powerful family. He reluctantly takes the hush money to visit his sister Shannon (Claire Forlani) in London. His brother-in-law Steve sent him off with his brother Pete (Charlie Hunnam) to a West Ham United football game. Pete is the leader of the Green Street Elite (GSE). Each football team has their own 'firm' or gangs of hooligans who drink and fight together. They hate both cops and journalists.

Elijah Wood is a bit too much of a Hobbit to be a believable fighter. The movie could have given his character a little bit of skill to offset his disadvantage. There is a nice Fight Club feel about the mentality of these hooligans. The final act ramps up the drama in a way that puts me off a little. I guess the movie was always going to overdramatize the story but it could be less melodramatic. The soft rock music over a slo-mo montage of the big fight is a bit too much. I just wish it's more natural. Matt could have been caught by the cops and thrown out of the country. I also don't like Matt turning into lapdog. This could have been something great but it turns into more like Rumble Fish. It's not bad but it could have been better.

This passable thriller tackles the subject of football hooliganism in a way that's neither here nor there. It's watchable enough while it's on, but it's one of those films that it's easy to forget about soon after: run-of-the-mill, so to speak, without ever bringing much in the way of insight to its subject matter.

Elijah Wood is cynically cast – to interest the American market – as a failed student who finds himself inducted into the way of football fandom. Before long, he's falling foul of jealous types and rival fans, and the film soon deteriorates into a series of pitched battles between different 'firms'. Those at the highest echelons of football fandom are treated with the kind of glamour you see in gangster films, hanging out in watering holes surrounded by their supporters.

Unfortunately, the reason this film is so forgettable is that it never tells us anything we don't know about the subject. We know the rivalries are deep-rooted. We know that fans meet up for pitched battles. The human story, involving Elijah Wood and his sister Claire Forlani, is dull and goes nowhere; in fact it gets in the way of the hooliganism stuff when it should be getting to grips with it.

The cast is varied, with Charlie Hunnam giving the most interesting performance as the charismatic football thug who takes Wood under his wing. But Marc Warren is totally miscast as an ex-gang leader and female writer/director Lexi Alexander never has the heart to really gets to grips with the subject matter. The resulting movie is slick but vapid: you can't help but feel it's a bit of a waste of time for all involved.