User Reviews

Long awaited sequel to the quintessential football hooligan film I.D. This film was made so long after the first (Trainspotting 2 eat your heart out) that of course some characters have sadly departed us. (Bob the landlord of The Rock played by Warren Clarke).

The film retains some continuity from the first with admirable cameos by Perry Fenwick as Eddie (Billy Mitchell off Eastenders) and Richard Graham as Trevor. Eddie and Trevor were part of the original police unit in I.D. The film strays away from football (as if hooliganism wasn't enough) to the subject of fascism by members of far right groups such as the English Defence League.

The main character is an Asian called Mo (Simon Rivers) who does an admirable job as the undercover police mole. The Yorkshire locations are mainly in Kingston Upon Hull rather than South London and add little to the film.

Another returning character Gumbo becomes an unlikely hero.

Not as good as the first film as most sequels aren't but a worthy watch all the same.

Being a massive fan of the original I was really looking forward to watching ID2... How let down was I? Low budget, unconvincing acting and a very poor, disconnected story line. The main character is neither convincing as a police officer or a football hooligan and the fight scenes are shockingly bad.

Shadwell are now playing the likes of Bolton and Hull in the Premier League? What happened to Wapping away in the cup? All the magic has been taken away with this awful sequel.

Some really cringe worthy moments as well. I lost interest 40 minutes in but stuck it out to the bitter end.

Give this a swerve and watch the original again. This was truly awful!

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 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.