Shank

source: Shank

I really really try to view a movie on it's merits and go into seeing one with an open mind and watch it to the end. With this i couldn't, what can i say, it's a dog, simple as that, a dog with 4 broken legs would be more apt. Combine a poor plot, poor acting, great British stereotypes and you have Shank. The director must have been asleep and the editor obviously only did this project for the money, don't ask what the actors did. This would border on some of the worst, if not very worst piece of British cinema i have ever had the misfortune to see. I felt like i was parted from my money under false pretenses. It's not possible to rate this a 0 but i will anyway. Save your money and rent something else

I will have to be extremely short and punctual cause this flick doesn't even deserve more than 2 sentences. Absolute parody of a movie, bad screenplay, worse acting, cheap characters, and for Christ sake this is not English that is spoken, but some degenerated conceptual slang, that is absolutely impossible to get.Not only for jokes, but also simple lines. I'm absolutely glad its over, and will free my harddrive from this non- sense right away. Whoever understands 3 sentences in a row of the speech involved is a superhero according to me. Don't waste money on a sequel, and maybe offer with English subtitles, although I am not sure it will help.Boo

If you believe the marketing that is what this is. And in a way the marketing guys got it right. This is actually what you should expect from this movie. Maybe they also should have mentioned, that it is an extended music video. Every 3 to 4 minutes there is a song coming up, sometimes played as a story evolution or as a montage piece. But you will hear quite a few music pieces before the movie is over. And if you like the music, at least you will be entertained in one category. The question is if the director did music videos prior to this (though it seems like a given). The flashy cuts, the music, the style overall would suggest so. I wouldn't go as far as to compare it with Kidulthood. I don't think it could stand a comparison and it would be unfair to the movie. It's nothing big and has quite a few flaws and will only appeal to a certain group of people. But that doesn't mean it's completely bad. It has a few nice things going for it ... you just have to find them (and it won't be easy)

With an opening sequence copied from DISTRICT 13 and an entire storyline and setting copied from KIDULTHOOD, there's nothing remotely original about SHANK. It juts and jumps all over the place, telling a storyline of revenge and brotherhood that's been done to death a zillion times already. It makes you feel like this particular genre of gritty, London-set gangster film is dead in the water, although a film came along a year later that proved there was still life in the genre yet: I'm talking about 2011's ATTACK THE BLOCK, of course. Sadly, SHANK is nothing like ATTACK THE BLOCK. The script is dead-headed stupid, the characters clichéd and the frenzied editing actually nausea-inducing. The obnoxious leading characters are repulsive in the extreme and their quest to undertake revenge seems to go absolutely nowhere; by the time the film ends, absolutely nothing has happened to any of them. There are no character arcs whatsoever. I don't know what's worse, actually: Paul Van Carter's wannabe-hip script or Mo Ali's drug-addled direction. Put together they provide a nauseating example of all that's wrong with British cinema when a successful film comes along and the inevitable rip-offs follow.

London 2015. Society has split in two leaving the economy and most basic services in the hands of private corporations. The city itself has been split between the well-off and the rest. Within the cut-off squalors of the capital's streets gangs of hoodlums divide and rule the limited wealth. Food has become the most important commodity: munchies are worth life and death. The Paper Runners, led by Rager (Ashley Bashy Thomas), is a small gang of misfits with a knack for getting stuff without bloodshed (don't cause any harm and no harm can come to you). Rager is a role model for his little brother, Junior (Kedar Williams-Stirling), a get-away specialist, as well as the remainder of the crew: Kickz (Adam Deacon), Craze (Michael Socha) and Sweet Boy (Jan Uddin). However in this dog-eat-dog world not everyone has such scruples and youngling Tugz (Jerome Holder) is the worst of the lot... "Shank" is an explicit orgy of sound and images pasted together with an initial headache reaction. After the initial onslaught the fast editing and video-clip montage on acid does recede a couple of notches, so the story can be fleshed out. But even than we are input sequence after sequence of rapturous music and occasional computer-inspired scenes drowning out the plot and most of the character development. At times the movie actually feels more like a filmed video game (or more like a singular mission/level of it), where occasional power bars and animations fit effortlessly as part of the experience. This all-action approach did however cause many key moments of the movies to lack enough contemplation - Mo Ali was unable to take a breath and let the moment sink emotionally into the viewers. The occasionally uninspiring derivative plotting and/or dialogue don't help to overcome this obstacles either... Nonetheless this unrelenting storytelling isn't all amiss, as in between this overzealous approach to innovative methods of telling a film story, you find a decent amount of subtexts and brilliant ideas. Unfortunately for Mo Ali his incapability to show restraint (and unwillingness to use some more classical artistic tools) hindered the intriguing concept of a boy being unable to properly identify feelings of emptiness and anguish, instead channelling them into revenge and anger. Also several scenes were extremely inspiring in their capability of mixing emotions or simple storytelling with a modern cutting edge freshness to them. Despite being uneven and at times lazy it does however warrant a look, as there are several gems hidden inside its chaotic shell. Despite everything said the movie is at least a brilliant score to the movie, which shows that England remains the epicentre of adventurous music.

Okay, take it from someone totally objective. I have nothing to do with this movie and could care less about what country a movie comes from. All I care about is whether or not a movie engages me from beginning to end. Shank has its flaws but what low budget movie doesn't. As far as low budget movies go, this is top notch. I really got a rise out of the juxtaposition between reality and the digital world. I especially enjoyed the pit bull fight that had life meters like a video game. This is not at all a complicated or thinking person's movie, just a low budget action packed tale about some angry youths seeking revenge. But this film doesn't steal from any vigilante genre pieces, instead creating its own stream of consciousness bleeding every trick of the low budget film for what it is worth, and it works just fine. I liked it. Enough said.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning From the makers of Kidulthood, proclaims this latest, modest budget slice of 'urban' life, and indeed, we're on very similar ground. Only set in the future, a very depressing, dangerous future that looks only too likely to be a reality, where knife crime and gangs have taken over a decaying London and it's a fight for survival that nothing short of a BNP government might have prevented. Shank does little to go in any direction other than any other film aimed at the 'yout'' culture of today goes, throwing all the common street lingo, slang and style in the face of it's audience, even the title a hideous term for stabbing somebody. It tries to throw in what it thinks is the odd little inventive touch here and there, but it is little more than another sad reflection of where our young people are today and where they're going. **

OK, this will be a very short review. Only watch this movie if you are really, really into gang-type movies and just have to watch them all. And then do so with full knowledge that this might just be the worst you ever saw. Otherwise, save yourself the waste of time, I wished I had. And yes, the basic idea of a city like London being extremely divided in a poor and a rich segment is not that bad. But they could have made a way better movie about that if you ask me. Nothing good then? Well, the camera-work is not too bad, and use of colour is reasonable. But that really is it, in my humble opinion.

I have watched a lot of gang films that have gone over the edge, but this film gives a clear explanation of the life of a young boy struggling without the only family he had and seeing him get revenge for his brothers death and going in any means necessary to complete his mission of getting the one who Shanked his beloved brother! Its an over the edge new film with brilliant music scores and contemporary dub-step rap which has evolved, editing of the movie is very digital and unique to what effects where added into the movie, shots taken are incredibly remarkable and give a more grunge look to the movie, from beginning to end the movie contains a slow, but POV type look to the movie to where it makes the viewer see the movie in a way the movie will be in the future for everyone, give it a drug like sense to the viewer.