Having been told by someone I know that this is a film for the 'lads' I must disagree. I really enjoyed this movie, especially for the escapism that it is!
I think that with some parts of the story it would help if you had seen the first film, but if you haven't I don't think that your enjoyment would be spoilt. It was a long film, but in the cinema that I saw it the surround sound was brilliant and really added to my enjoyment of the film.
One bug bear that I have is that the geography was a bit suspicious, but I think that the film makers used a bit of artistic licence to allow it to fit in with the story!