Green Street 2: Stand Your Ground is a direct to video sequel of the surprise hit Green Street Hooligans, which followed an American student caught up in football hooliganism in London. And by football I mean soccer to my fellow Americans. Like its predecessor, Green Street 2 follows several members of the West Ham and Millwall firms who have wound up incarcerated. The Green Street Elite, or GSE as they call themselves, quickly discover the brutality of life on the inside. After being transferred to a different prison, three members of the GSE find themselves as constant targets of the Millwall crew as well as with the head prison guard Veronica Mavis, played by Marina Sirtis. Life on the inside isn’t going as well as they had hoped for. The only character held over from the original move is Dave, played by Ross McCall, while the rest of the GSE are new characters that are presumed to have been in the massive fight that led to their arrests. In the new prison, football on the inside is followed fervently by the prisoners and wins and losses affect the prisons every day lives, from an extra shower or a day of visitation to a vicious beating. Football is king. When overcrowding compels a need for the early release of a fortunate few, fate brings West Ham and Millwall together again this time on the field. Both will do anything to make sure they win the game, and their freedom. Green Street 2 is an English movie geared towards Brits yet it has an American feel to it. It could be because it was filmed in California, with U.S. based British actors, as well as an Aussie. Thankfully we’re spared any Americans attempting British accents. Despite its Americanization, the movie still holds true to a lot of British mannerisms and its way of life. Green Street 2 wants you to sympathize with the GSE, but unlike the first movie, it makes it clear that they’re not heroes. For a direct to dvd feature, Green Street 2 is a fun movie that realizes its limits and plays within the boundaries. It’s not meant to take any position on prison life and those incarcerated, it’s simply telling the story of some guys doing time and making the time a little more bearable.
Green Street 2: Stand Your Ground
