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Sumotherhood is a sequel from Adam Deacon, but I went into this not having seen the previous film, Anuvahood, which was a spoof on Noel Clarke’s Adulthood and Kidulthood. I’ve not seen either of those, either, but for Deacon’s movie, based on clips, it didn’t exactly feel like The Usual Suspects in terms of plotting. Plus, Deacon was Kenneth in that, and Riko in this, so perhaps it’s not a direct sequel, and I’m not sure why I care.
This starts off well, as Riko (Deacon) wakes up to his Alexa going along with his rap slang lingo, ending every sentence with ‘fam’, before the plot begins and we learn both he and Kane (Jazzie Zonzolo) owe £15k to some bad guys, the names of whom elude me, and it doesn’t help that IMDB doesn’t list any character names.
In other to resolve this, their first plan is to attempt to steal Lethal Bizzle‘s watch at his gig, since they think it must be worth a fortune. When that goes South, the next venture is to rob a bank (the HSTD, not HSBC), which goes even worse.
However, as their identities are revealed and the scene drags on, Jeremy Corbyn – the best Prime Minister we never had, thanks to the bastard mainstream media – pops up as a customer, to slam the Tories… my only gripe in that moment being that he refers to “10 years of Tory failure”.
I know they might not have known the exact release date at the time of filming, but they could at least have prepared alternate lines, since in 2023, it’s now thirteen years, and will make at least 14 by the time the general election comes round. IMDB lists filming dates of February to March 2022, so it’s taken a while to reach the cinema.
The plot for Sumotherhood turns into a complete mess as they get involved with a drug dealer in one of East London’s crime gangs, whilst also coming across Ed Sheeran as a crack addict, pooing in a bush… and that’s one of the better moments, and certainly a lot more palatable than his attempt at music.
Other cameos include Jennifer Saunders (Allelujah!) as a Chief Inspector, Vas Blackwood (King of Crime) as another cop, Linda Robson as a bank customer wanting to get served whilst waiting for the bank robbery to happen or not, alleged comedian London Hughes (History Of Swear Words) as a bank teller, and Denise Van Outen (not Van) as a nurse. In fact, she’s given short shrift by one of the bad guys and puts up with it, whereas you can imagine the real Denise giving back even more than she’d get.
Alas, after about 40 minutes, the whole film completely runs out of steam, and degenerates into people just shouting at each other, and using nonsensical gibberish like “mandem” and “bruv“.
There’s also a brief post-credit scene which I’ll describe in the spoiler section below:
Sumotherhood is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 97 minutes
Release date: October 13th 2023
Studio: Paramount Pictures UK
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 4/10
Director: Adam Deacon
Producers: Finn Bruce, Adam Deacon, Jazzie Zonzolo
Screenplay: Adam Deacon, Michael Vu, Jazzie Zonzolo
Cast:
Riko: Adam Deacon
Kane: Jazzie Zonzolo
Himself: Jeremy Corbyn
Chief Inspector: Jennifer Saunders
Cop: Vas Blackwood
Bank customer: Linda Robson
Bank teller: London Hughes
Nurse: Denise Van Outen
Himself: Lethal Bizzle
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.