Rise of the Footsoldier: Part II

Not a movie as such more a collection of stories that happened to Carlton after the Rettendon murders.

There is not a plot to speak of as such but every ten minutes or so, a new scrape, a a new business venture, a new fight takes place to keep things bubbling along quite nicely.

Unfortunately, with this, it just isn't good enough. It does keep you vaguely engaged, but, not enthralled.

The lead actor is a little 'one paced' and limited. And compared to the real Carleton Leach, who appears as a cameo at the end of the movie, looks tiny and carries little or no menace. Instead coming across in the movie as an angry little man. All snarl and no bite.

"Rise of the Footsoldier Part II" is a classic case of sequel-itis. It's more of the same: British gangsters shouting the f- and c-words every time they open their mouths, and random on screen sex and violence, though nothing memorable like the first movie's Chelsea grin scene, or even that movie's sex scene.

What's missing is any kind of sense of purpose. The first movie told the story of Carlton Leach's rise from his time as a football hooligan to a proper career criminal. What does this one tell? That he's now got kids, and his wife's sick of his criminal ways? And more miscellaneous criminal goings on?

It's all totally pointless, and a complete waste of time.

I can only assume Berkoff needed some quick money as an actor of his ability should not have gone anywhere near this tosh. This film exaggerates the importance of Carlton Leach in the underworld. The acting is mostly dire but the script they are working to is unoriginal with dialogue that could have been written by a semi literate 12 year old. The direction and accompanying music just grates.

I like that they focus the story on Leach, he's the character I was first drawn to, however they take his arc in an unfortunate direction.

Gone is the larrikin turned gangster, Leach has become something else much darker and the film suffers for it.

The original RISE OF THE FOOTSOLDIER was unfortunate in that it arrived very belatedly in an era when most British films seemed inspired by Guy Ritchie . There's only some much mileage you can squeeze out of a formula so by the time RISE OF THE FOOTSOLDIER came out everyone had become bored by mockney gangsters . That said I found Julian Gilbey's true life crime movie to be rather underrated and if there was a British equivalent of GOODFELLAS that might have been it . Crime doesn't pay ? Tell me about it . Despite this the idea of a sequel seems needless and I can see why this continuation of Carlton Leach's life story came and went without the slightest fanfare

In its favour director and star Ricci Harnett concentrates on continuity with the prior film . Some of the cast are resurrected and we have the same look and feel as the 2007 . There is a slight difference and that where Leach became a very peripheral character in the second half of RISE OF THE FOOTSOLDIER here he appears in nearly every scene and is the constant central character of the narrative

This leads to a fundamental problem though . While the lives of Tate , Rolfe and Tucker were unremittingly violent and made the first film compelling here there's considerably less violence which makes for a less compulsive film . Don't get me wrong , you won't confuse this with Walt Disney family fare but this tends to draw your attention to another aspect - self justification . Carlton you see isn't really a bad man and only maims and beats people who deserve it and the understated violence is only inflicted on people who deserve . Perhaps even worse there's an element of redemption running through the narrative subtext but how does a former West Ham ICF thug and gangster redeem himself ? The answer is he probably can't . It's not a bad film but if you need convincing that crime doesn't pay the message has been spelled out in better films without trying to elicit sympathy from the audience