ID2: Shadwell Army

The original film, as many on here have noted, is a bit of a minor cult classic and a far better movie than any of the cheesy hooligan flicks that followed it. It also ended really well, as anyone who has seen it will know. The sequel then. It's not a bad film as such, although it has a lot of problems. Its main drawback though is there really wasn't any reason to make it. I can see various better ways to have gone, all involving catching up with characters from the original rather than introducing a new lead actor. There are some old characters here, but they're only in supporting roles. The new lead actor isn't bad, as such, but like the rest of the characters he struggles with the poor script and storyline. We are dropped straight in to him being undercover - there's precious little backstory, context or explanation of who he is or why he's driven to do what he does. He instantly sleeps with another character's wife, and the guy doesn't seem to care. Really? He's accepted almost instantly into the hooligan crowd in a way that's not at all believable (yes, Linus Roache's character does it because he's also a copper but still...) and the other hooligans are poorly-drawn characters. Our leading man doesn't look convincing in the part - he doesn't have the physicality, and when he's supposed to have gone fully nuts he just can't pull off the transformation. The budget issues are pretty obvious too. The fight scenes are poorly edited, a lot of shots generally are framed very tightly and in odd ways to cover up the actual location (the London and European scenes were mostly filmed in Hull) and it does show. So this is a film that didn't really need to be made. And if it was going to be made, it should have revisited characters from the first movie. There's a laudable attempt to address today's climate - Neil Duncan as a thinly-disguised Farage is an interesting addition - but overall it's a stuttering effort.

Mo (Simon Rivers) is an undercover cop and Sikh. He infiltrates the dogs or wannabes, a term used to describe ardent football fans of the Shadwell team. They are playing Amsterdam in the finals which leads to hooligan violence. At the same time a Mosque is thinking about expanding near the stadium which has caused unrest. Vinnie (Linus Roache) is also undercover, attempting to direct things politically. Mo likes Vinnie's wife (Christine Tremarco) or is trying to fit in, go figure. Mo spends half the film with blood on his face, some self inflicted. The film has action and drama working all the time. It centers on Mo and we wonder what he is going to do, i.e. where his alliances are when things hit the fan. Guide: F-word, sex, near nudity.

I heard about this film and knew it was going to go one of two ways. I loved the first ID from way back when. This has some old characters in it that I suspected where just thrown a bone. I was wrong. While not quite hitting the highs and lows of John's story from the original this is still worth a look, it brings you back into their world in a convincing enough way it leaves you wanting another installment. Sure, the budget is low. The acting isn't world class but the story is compelling. Just like the original. I went in blind. I didn't know anything about the story. I want the same for you. If you enjoyed the first one, trust it.

Keeping things simple... Things that I liked about this film: Performances by - Linus Roche Paul popplewell Lee Ross Neal Pearson Things I did not like about this film: Everything else.

I had the immense pleasure of discussing both this film and it's first installment with the wickedly talented writer Vincent O'Connell. We are taken back to the stomping grounds of Shadwell's violent football underworld in another look at how easy it is to lose one's identity when confronted with a need to abandon every belief you've built your life on. Two decades on from the original film, Simon Rivers puts in a blisteringly visceral performance as Mo, a Muslim police-officer who experiences racial hatred from his police "brothers" as well as the firm he's tasked with infiltrating on orders from his higher ups (played by Neil Pearson in a return to the first film's character of Dave, now a high-ranking member of the police force.) We head back to "The Rock" pub, now rebranded as Le Chien but still very much the stomping ground for Shadwell FC's hooligan-contingent. It's here that we are introduced to Danny Boy & Nick who serve as Mo's first contact with the group, as well as Vinnie. Vinnie is held in high regard by the firm's many members, but it is apparent from early on that he may have his own hidden motivations. We are also reintroduced to the I. D. franchise's heart in Lee Ross' character "Gumbo" - a man who manages to be both a very gentle, childlike individual whilst courting the violence he's surrounded by. When watching I. D.2, I loved that he was the only one who was really sure what Mo was, but didn't care despite being in a repeat of his circumstances from the end of the first film. It's this character that really bridges the gap between the two films. His ending is framed by a very bittersweet decision that contrasts the end of the first film; his singing aloud to the empty seats of Shadwell's football ground alone. At the end of I. D. 1, John's descent into madness and white supremacy, culminating in the "Seig heil" chant, is a very disturbing end to his character arc. The choice to focus on Gumbo's final decision is a compelling one, and it leaves it's mark. I could talk at length about this film, but I suggest you watch it for yourself. There have been so many hooligan films now that the genre has become somewhat saturated, but the first acts (for me, at least) as the progenitor of stories like this and the second manages to cling to that identity without becoming lost in that market.

If you're of the belief that every football hooligan is an uneducated far-right Muslim hating terrorist then this film is probably for you, if you have a semblance of free thought though it's probably best avoided. It's a shame they had to taint the original film with this rubbish.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Many years after the events of the original film, the social and political climate of Shadwell has changed considerably, and a new generation of disaffected men has emerged. Mo (Simon Rivers) a British Sikh officer working his way up the ladder in the Met, is the latest charge assigned to infiltrate the ranks of the infamous Shadwell Army gang. He crosses paths with Vinnie (Linus Roache) a fellow undercover officer who's dealing with an extremist far right element of the group, headed by a local politician (Neil Pearson), who is exploiting tensions surrounding the opening of a new mosque in the area. It's never too late to make a sequel to a film these days, and this follow up to 1995's cult football hooligan drama I.D., is one of many that caught me completely by surprise. Picking a handful of memorable characters from the first film (including Lee Ross as the impaired simpleton Gumbo) whilst completely leaving out a load of others (most notably Reece Dinsdale's striking lead character John), it still fails to connect them together in a manner that would let you know they had a history from the first film. Set in a modern Britain nearly twenty five years on from then, it highlights some simmering tensions and divisions that are very relevant to these times, and there's a lot of interesting potential to explore with these themes, as well as the generally shocking element of the football violence. Sadly, none of it really manages to engage you in the way it should, and it just goes through the motions without any real coherency or focus. It has the original's staunch and spirit. If only it had it's substance. **

...to see two sub-genres disappear into the mist of time. The 'Geezer-Geezer-have-aword-wiv-yerself-Gangster film' and the 'Isn't Football Violence Terrible? let's wallow in some film' ID2 is a waste of digital space, making no useful contribution. It is a wonderful example, however, of the 10/10 IMDB review from users who mysteriously only feel the need to join the site and review one film in their lives. Strange. Perhaps DVDs and BluRays should credit these people on the crew list, y'know in the interest of transparent.

The sequel to one of my all time favourite British movies, I could not believe this had been released without much publicity or fanfare, and only got to hear this had been released when over hearing a conversation in a pub, between two guys I'd never met. They were arguing fiercely about it, one loved it and one hated it, I thought whatever movie this is it must be interesting, and it turns out to be the follow up to ID! The argument between e two guys was about the fact this film goes off at a tangent into politics, which seemed to me a strange thing to argue about as I found the first film extremely political, telling the story of John, whose character completely breaks down in the course of the film, until he becomes fodder for nazi groups (that's my reading anyhow). Some may feel the direction of ID2 is unfaithful to the first film, but I feel it couldn't be more so without just being a tired retread. So much to say about this film, I would get boring, but it is based in Shadwell , though cleverly updated, it involves an undercover cop again, who again has a sort of breakdown, there's sexual tension and betrayal like the last one had, and some of the characters from the original film re appear- LOVE YOU GUMBO!!! But it's different too. The cop hero is a British Muslim (I think) and a mosque is being built next to the Shadwell ground, so it massively kicks off. What a BRILLIANT idea! Audacious is the word. This and other factors bring the original ID concept right up to date, this is England here and now, and it ain't pretty. The film is very low budget, and sometimes that shows (could no one properly fund this film?) and some of the casting is less than spot on, probably the two facts are linked, and this is what stops me giving the film a perfect 10. But there is more going on in this film than any other I have seen in the last year, and I found it both funny and exciting. The climax has a big disappointment in it (no spoilers), but again it is that word audacious. This is an incredible film, as was the original, I will watch it many times, and I can't believe I only knew about it because two blokes were having a row in a pub!

Not exactly picking off where the first film ended,The viewer will find themselves thrust into the rough end of London and mixing it with the hard men who run the manors. Mo, an Asian cop (read: Muslim) undercover with Shadwell FC attempts to infiltrate the clubs firm and shut it down from the inside. Along the way he meets an other undercover officer with a different type of mission and the two men become allies. The action isn't as realistic as the original and the story is kind of hackneyed. One saving grace is the return of lovable tard Gumbo, who appeared in the original and offers some light comic relief. All in all this has too cheap a feel to it and the fights scenes are simply not realistic enough.