Purely Joyful Movie!

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

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.

Have you ever heard of the phrase "All the gear, no idea"? This film is the definition of what it means. The idea of Shank is a great one and it could have been a brilliant gritty movie but it's executed very poorly. While the movie questions you to ask yourself "what if this decision was made and this happened" and tries to send strong messages about anti-violence and such, it fails to do so and succeeds in doing the opposite, just like 1 Day. So the movie is set in 2015 and the gangs have taken over, the story revolves around Junior who witnesses his brother Rager being murdered by Tugz and so he goes out on a vengeance mission to find Tugz and kill him. Shank had a brilliant idea and it was interesting that it was a British gang culture movie set in the near future but everything about it was just terrible, from the acting to the directing. Let's start with the plot, it's very thin and has been done loads of times before and done much better, you only have to watch Kidulthood or Adulthood as evidence to this. Shank starts off okay with Junior narrating about how tough life is on the streets of 2015 and how he's part of a non-violent gang known as The Paper Chaserz and how his brother, Rager, and his other 'brothers' don't condone the 'postcode war'. That is until Tugz, the leader of a rival gang, stabs Rager, the leader of The Paper Chaserz, and Junior wants to kill Tugz. That was when the movie started to go downhill. It just felt like an excuse to make a movie involving teen gang violence, stealing, drugs and sex. This movie is basically the Daily Mail reader's worst nightmare.The characters in Shank were just uninteresting, everything about them was unlikeable. Yes they may have did one or two things that the characters did that made you laugh a little but other than that, you weren't bothered about any of them and they remain unlikeable throughout the movie. Also, it seems that they can't make up their minds whether they want to be violent or not. One minute they're saying they don't want to stand and fight and the next, they're threatening other gangs and dog fighting. While we're on the subject about the characters in this movie, the names given to them are terrible and sound a lot like nicknames a ten-year-old would give to look tough. Junior is alright but Rager? Kickz? Tugz? Craze? Whisper? They sound a little bit childish. Also, the gangs were named a bit ridiculous as well: Slaughter Gurlz, Paper Chaserz…what's wrong with the letter S? Is it against the law to use S on the end of names? Personally, changing Kickz to Kicks looks better to me. Another thing that annoyed me about Shank was when Junior introduces characters, he'd always say they're tough, mean or psychopaths. This is supposed to be Broken Britain when gangs are extremely violent and killing people, you'd think you get the picture without him telling us they're mean.The cast of Shank aren't the best actors in the world and they don't do the best job with their characters. Adam Deacon and Michael Socha do a couple of entertaining scenes as their characters Kickz and Craze but other than that, the rest of the cast doesn't bring much to the screens. The acting isn't terrible but it is quite bad, especially Kaya Scodelario which came as a surprise considering she's a good actress in Skins. The direction wasn't really great either, the whole movie just felt like a feature-length music video (well, it is directed by music video director Mo Ali, what do you expect?). Shank should have been serious, what with the story and the messages but there were a few things in the movie that took the seriousness away. This is because there were some scenes including a dog fight with computer-game beat-em-up energy bars (you don't see the dogs fight, just spectators screaming at the camera) and a confusing Grand Theft Auto-like scene when Junior steals a BMX. Another thing Shank didn't have was a decent script, the lines were very lazy and didn't aspire or mean anything bar a couple of scenes. Shank is a good idea and, in the hands of somebody like Noel Clarke who had written Kidulthood and Adulthood, could have been a great movie but in the end, it was dull, boring in most parts and offers nothing new. I really wanted to like this movie because I thought the idea was brilliant but unfortunately, I was very disappointed with this monstrous mess. Teenagers will probably love this movie but I doubt adults will like it. If you want to watch a better movie than this, watch Crank, The Warriors and Adulthood since it's those movies combined together. I pray British movies do better than this attempt from now on! Read more reviews at: www.dudedazzmoviereviews.wordpress.com

This film isn't for everyone. From the reviews this film has received on here I'd say that this film isn't really made for IMDb users specifically. The older generation that sees a good movie as a narrative with a quiet and linear plot line with some obvious sociological or spiritual statements would never understand this movie. I have been a film enthusiast for a long time. I've analysed a lot of movies but something like this I've never seen executed so well.Anyone that's spent any time of their lives holding angst will have music to reflect and indulge in. For different forms of people from older generations different forms of rock did the trick. Nowadays we have something different that speaks to the current teen generation (specifically that of England). That would be grime and Dubstep (wiki it). It's filthy, it's grimy, it's hard hitting and, for some reason, it seems to capture the perfect blend of dance, spirit, anger and violence that younger generations have grown up with. So what the makers of this film (and of Kidulthood/Adulthood) did is spill this blend on screen and express this in the best possible way possible to them.The film is filled with aesthetics that, after a while, become you. You become all that is tense, angry and grimy.Not that this movie is simply a Grime movie, there is a lot in the movie that people give it little credit for. While people were too busy pushing off this movie because of their natural dislike for anything new, many small things that resemble statements of maturity slipped by.So let me start with a rundown of the film. It's 2015 (not that far away) and London is divided between the have and the have-nots because of social, political and economic reasons (much like District B13). The film's protagonist happens to be a quiet boy called Junior who, with his money-chasing brotherhood, ends up running into senseless violence and has to watch his big brother die trying to protect him. This, of course, leads to a near death-wish lust for vengeance. So he sets off to find the thug that killed him in order to make up for his belittlement. His brotherhood isn't really happy with the idea (excluding Craze) but they go along anyway.Throughout the movie, his older peers-Kickz and Sweetboy, insist on telling him that it's never too late to go back and that absolute violence isn't the answer, same with a few older characters. However, these words do not reach Junior as he's stuck in a state of shock and has misinterpreted his feelings of mourning and insecurity as anger. So he goes through many of the older generations of people for help, who're either drunk or trying too hard to show off a sense of importance. They have very little to say and pitch into his lust for violence. Finally, after long walks back and fourth in the area, he comes to face his brother's killer and ends up giving up the shank for a clean heart.What the director was trying to express through the film was the confusion, anger and insecurity of having to grow up and live in a society brushed away from the eyes of an elite. Not only that but having to endure chaos while keeping a straight face. The movie makes several references to our need for violence by satirising video games. We see a video game sequence where Junior is running away from a helicopter on a bicycle but still get shot down. This is Junior giving narrative to his own anger and protagonising himself as the ultimate fighter but it ends in ruins when he falls down.We also see another sequence where Junior is dreaming of him fighting his brother's killer in animation-mode. This is another statement about violence in cartoons. However, Junior wakes up when the cartoon dream doesn't go his way and only ends up amplifying the horribleness of what really happened to him and his brother. There are more things like this in the movie for viewers to catch.This is the part where I note the drawbacks: -some parts (specifically with Whisper) were unnecessary -The editing in the club scene could've been leaner -Some characters were unnecessary -Junior's actor (Kedar)could've done a better job at being coherent when he talked. (I mean, srsly, how hard could it be to have a movie narration be fathomable?)Other than that Ali did a good job by keeping true to the Audience with the music, plot and actors while also pushing his raw expression with sharp, grainy, washed out photography and nauseatingly shaky cinematography. This movie builds upon Kidulthood and shows us the future of black British Expression. There is nothing to gain or lose with this film. It's simply expression to be felt, heard and seen.I don't expect anyone to understand this film now but in a few years this movie will be held up as a cult classic and a staple in a new emerging genre.

OK normally id watch these types of films and within 5 minutes be completely hooked, (however) this was so dull that i would of happily turned off within the first fifteen minutes of viewing..... most of the acting was OK and especially by Adam Deacon (kickz) who i think is a great actor. Another actor who caught my eye was Bashy. (Rager) he was brilliant and will be looking out for in the future.. the story could of been so much better there was a few good ideas adding gaming style death o meter to the dog fight scene was classic.. i can only give this film four out of ten at the maximum any more id be lying and wouldn't be fair to anyone going to pay at the cinema. (this is my personal view only but be warned)