ID2: Shadwell Army

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. **

If you like the original movie, don't bother with this very loosely connected sequel. Unlike the original, this movie has nothing to say. The only reason I watched it is because it was included on the I.D. blu-ray.

There is no build up. The main character (a generous use of that word) goes into a pub and talks to a stand up comedian, and bam, four minutes into the movie he's part of the hooligans. It wasn't until after the film was finished and I watched the making of documentary that I realized that the stand up comedian was one of the four policemen from the original movie, something which was never established in the movie.

Remember the original where it was imperative for the policemen to establish trust with the hooligans, pretending to be painters having lunch in the pub to get of first name basis with the staff etc? No time for that here, we have to get to the poorly executed fight scenes quickly!

This movie neither a police procedural, nor a thriller or character study. It's amateur hour all the way through. It boggles the mind that this movie was written by the same person who wrote the original. And I have no idea who the director is, but if this movie is representative of his work, I have zero interest in watching another movie by that guy.

The only thing I liked in this movie was the exchange between the right wing extremist politician and his dunce of a brown shirt storm trooper. It beautifully sums up the schizophrenia in the extreme right.

...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.

What even is this??? Some decent acting but the writing was an absolute mess.

NOTHING MADE Sense. I tasted my own fart and that was still more enjoyable than watching this.

Ok so nothing is going to beat the original. Yes it's low budget but the script and acting make the plot plausible. Give it a shot for an enjoyable trip down memory Lane with Gumbo.