Intcatinfo
A Masterpiece!
TaryBiggBall
It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.
Marva
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Prismark10
Shank tries to emulate those urban Noel Clarke heavy films and again we have an underclass in tower blocks trying to make ends meet in an urban wasteland. At least Shank is set in the near future in a Britain suffering from economic collapse and food is scarce.The film follows Junior and his older brother Rager who is the head of the local gang, 'The Paper Chaserz' who have a moral code of refusing to kill and getting involved in violence. However a plan to steal goods from a van goes wrong as a rival gang called the Soldiers take over the attempted theft and as they chase Junior they end up killing Rager. Junior and his crew are now looking for revenge.The actions starts in a frenetic and heavily choppy edited fashion with Junior doing Parkour moves as he tries to get away from the Soldiers. However as suspected the film runs out of juice, the writer and director seems to think that all the youth of today want to hear is that every other word to have f@@K in it not helped by some too loud rap soundtrack especially near the end when all I wanted to see is the climax of the film and how they will deal with the thrust of their anti violence message if at all possible without being cack handed. Unfortunately cack handed it is as its a circle that cannot be squared. The actors do well especially Kedar Williams-Sterling but they are not helped by the screenplay.
matrix_vs_badboys
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.
DirectorsCut23
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.
elle kay
i really enjoyed this film, the atmosphere in the cinema made it even better, seemed like everyone was into it.......it's good to see a young British film crew getting the opportunity to actually make a film and considering the budget was peanuts, they did an amazing and professional job. maybe the people who watched it don't relate to what the film is really about or the fact that the director wasn't trying to make a colour-by-numbers film. He tried to do something different and succeeded and i'm looking forward to seeing where Mo Ali goes from here, Hollywood, no doubt.....they need someone who thinks outside the box like he does...
