Hooligans 2 – Green Street Hooligans 2 (2009)

Directed by: Jesse V. Johnson | 94 minutes | action, drama, crime | Actors: Ross McCall, Graham McTavish, Treva Etienne, Luke Massy, ​​Nicky Holender, Terence Jay, Timothy V. Murphy, Vernon Wells, Suzanne May, Peter O’Meara, Marina Sirtis, John Bariamis, Nicola Bertram, Matt Candito, Paul Cullen

In 2005, a moderately successful film about the hooligan phenomenon was released, made by a filmmaker who had personal experience with the subject. Called simply ‘Hooligans’, this film starred the American actor Elijah Wood, a casting choice that doesn’t seem realistic given the typically English subject matter and the rather thin and fragile Wood. Still, the print turned out to be a nice exploration of football hooliganism, with the main theme of the violent tendency that can take possession of any man. Now there’s the sequel, ‘Hooligans 2′, this time without Wood and practically without the context of the football game these folks are such a big fan of. The movie is not an improvement. He has little to do with the first part and all that is left is the violence.

Almost the entire film is set in prison and revolves around the tense relationship between two gangs and their leaders. In addition, there is a storyline about the internal dynamics of the group of guards and the corrupt “iron lady” of the company. In some scenes, girlfriends of the prisoners are mentioned or visited, but during 95% of the film only the fighting or tough acting prisoners and guards are in the picture. Only one or two characters are further developed than dumbass who can only think of beating their enemies to a pulp, and even then the characterization is sketchy at best.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the rough, violent nature of (these) inmates, the film doesn’t quite manage to get the viewer to bond with the characters. The most likely cause for this is probably a close friend of lead character Dave Miller, who is severely worked up by the “bad guys” and whose girlfriend also breaks up with him. In any case, Miller himself manages to get the viewer on his side in the last about ten minutes of the film – which still try to arouse some tension – when his girlfriend is threatened by males from villain Marc Turner. He does this to get Miller to deliberately lose the soccer game against Marc’s group. This competition is ridiculously organized by the guards and management to determine which prisoners can be released. In a film like ‘Lagaan’, in which a cricket match was also all-deciding whether or not to pay taxes, it was already strange, but that was still a fanciful Bollywood film. In the rough ‘Hooligans 2’ it completely frowns.

The confrontations and dynamics between the gangs, consisting of poorly playing actors, are not very interesting, but the corruption and involvement of some guards also provides little added value. The “iron lady” Veronica Mavis must seem intimidating, but Marina Sirtis will mainly cause yawns and chuckles. No, apart from some successful raw, rough fistfights (for the “enthusiast”) there is little to recommend ‘Hooligans 2’.