Rise of the Footsoldier Part II (2015)

Rise of the Footsoldier Part II: Directed by Ricci Harnett. With Charlie Heaton, Steven Berkoff, Craig Fairbrass, Luke Mably. The life of underworld icon Carlton Leach.

“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 . Thereu0026#39;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 Gilbeyu0026#39;s true life crime movie to be rather underrated and if there was a British equivalent of GOODFELLAS that might have been it . Crime doesnu0026#39;t pay ? Tell me about it . Despite this the idea of a sequel seems needless and I can see why this continuation of Carlton Leachu0026#39;s life story came and went without the slightest fanfare u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn 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 u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis leads to a fundamental problem though . While the lives of Tate , Rolfe and Tucker were unremittingly violent and made the first film compelling here thereu0026#39;s considerably less violence which makes for a less compulsive film . Donu0026#39;t get me wrong , you wonu0026#39;t confuse this with Walt Disney family fare but this tends to draw your attention to another aspect – self justification . Carlton you see isnu0026#39;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 thereu0026#39;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 canu0026#39;t . Itu0026#39;s not a bad film but if you need convincing that crime doesnu0026#39;t pay the message has been spelled out in better films without trying to elicit sympathy from the audience”