Green Street 3: Never Back Down worths every penny spent and every minute you will spend watching it.
A truly quality work of director James Nunn with good characters, very good acting and outstanding fighting choreography. No, this is not a promo article guys, I know I really rarely write a positive movie reviews but this time it should be done… sincerely.
“Tell your boss if it’ll happen again I will be knocking on his door”.
When you hear such a phrase from Scott Adkins, who’ve just kicked the crap out of a huge guy, you believe it, and this is exactly what gives a strong motivation to watch this movie and the same time this saves some storyline for a spin-off.
Green Street 3 is the third feature that focuses on the violent world of British football hooliganism. The film tells the story about talented ex-hooligan turned MMA fighter Danny who is running his gym but should come back home when his younger brother killed in a pre-planned underground fight. With no leads to go on Danny is forced to re-enter the world of organized football hooliganism in order to find out his brother’s killer. But since his departure, the rules of hooliganism have changed and hooligans now compete in an underground-style tournament pitting five on five.
British director James Nunn definitely found his style and a lead actor as it happened before with Isaac Florentine in the US.
Return of Scott Adkins to his native UK environment gives him a freedom of using his real English accent and hang out with old mates and same time brings some of Hollywood flair. This plays well and Adkins raises the bar feeling really confident of playing a mentor type character now not just another hero.
Actually, Adkins puts in a great performance no matter the subject and no matter the budget, and he will never let me down since he stated himself as “the most complete fighter in the world” in Undisputed 3.
Coach’s phrase in the movie “He is one of the best fighters” leaves no doubt that Scott is the best and most promising star in the martial arts movie business in the western part of the world.
Joey Ansah did a great job and combined brutal realism with exciting fighting choreography. As a youngest UK black belt in Ninjutsu and with 15 years of martial arts training experience Joey feels the rhythm perfectly and deserves in becoming Britain’s top martial arts choreographer. He just finished working on his first directorial project Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist with Mike Moh, Togo Igawa, Mark Killeen and Christian Howard (who served as an assistant fight choreographer on Green Street 3), film is set to release in 2014.
Special credits come to scenes of hooligans training in a boxing gym by MMA rules, this is a really something new, especially for street guys drinking beer all night long and watching football.
Paul Arnold and Andrew Barnabas have to be proud of their work on music as it brings you back to an era of classic action movies such as Best of The Best, Bloodsport or Rocky… very inspiring.
Strong colored lighting and grubby looking image help to generate some real world looking London streets with football hooligans life in it. I like this kind of gritty movie presentation and color grading, it reflects the story spirit.
Green Street 3 can’t be compared to the rest of the franchise as it is absolutely new and no doubt quality step in “football hooligan” sub-genre. The film could have worked much better if it was a stand-alone film – dropping the Green Street name connection.
It’s worth to watch, just ignore the football hooligan premise, some plot holes and enjoy the film’s fantastic fight sequences.
