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There's no real punch to 'Green Street Hooligans'

Say it isn't so, Frodo. Give up honor and goodness and what's right for Middle Earth in exchange for fisticuffs in soccer-mad England?

Odd Lot Releasing 'Green Street Hooligans' C The verdict: Melodrama mixed with fisticuffs. Too bad a couple of the fights are poorly staged. Director: Lexi Alexander Starring: Elijah Wood, Charlie Hunnam, Claire Forlani, Marc Warren, Leo Gregory Run time: 108 minutes Release date: Sept. 9, 2005 Rating: R for brutal violence, pervasive language and some drug use. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime [an error occurred while processing this directive]

Elijah Wood is following up the grand "The Lord of the Rings" movies with a series of indie films. One of the latest is "Green Street Hooligans," a sometimes watchable yet always simple-minded venture into English street culture that routinely devolves into hand-to-face combat.

Wood plays an American lad unjustly kicked out of Harvard who winds up across the pond, landing in the middle of soccer-loving headbangers — who, on game day, literally do just that.

No one's ever going to buy the perpetual pipsqueak Wood as a thug with bloodlust, but his gang co-star, English-born Charlie Hunnam (from TV's underappreciated but wonderful "Undeclared"), is convincing. Hunnam's the most acceptable actor in the movie, walking a fine line between his job as an elementary school teacher and his off-the-clock revelry as brute-force leader.

Unfortunately, there's not much to the movie. It swims and sinks in melodrama. Plus, "Hooligans" suffers from one killer blow — namely, a couple of poorly staged fights. Ouch.