Stevecorp
Don't listen to the negative reviews
ThedevilChoose
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
Kien Navarro
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Bezenby
Let's face it, Shadow Run isn't action packed. It's a kind of slow burner that kind of flickers slightly for a while. That said, if you're in the right mood it's okay. Caine is gangster who finds out, via James Fox, that he can get his hands on the paper the Royal Mint use to make bank notes, and starts getting a crew together for a heist. However, he's also having to deal with an unpopular public school boy who witnesses his last heist. The story jumps between Caine getting the heist together, and this boy's bullying at the school. That's, err, basically it. You've got Tim Healy here too, and Leslie Grantham (thankfully nowhere near a webcam!). Things run along smoothly, but there's not real action in it. It's not a bad movie, just a bit bland. Hence the short review.
mjh_uk-1
I think the film has great atmosphere, with its contrasting seediness of the gangsters and the magnificence of the cathedral and its music. Joffrey's character, too, is interestingly developed, and gives credibility as to why he should be drawn to character like that of Haskell. I do not see Haskell's failure to kill Joffrey as inconsistent. Rather, it suggests that Haskell has some redeeming qualities and, like the rest of us, is not all bad. One can understand why he would hesitate to kill a child, not least because he senses the boy's admiration for him. Kenneth Colley provides an excellent supporting role . His willingness to die without further treatment in order to help his ex-wife financially suggests a certain nobility of character. I certainly do not agree with the reviewer's dismissal of the film as second rate. It has a style and quality of its own which makes it enjoyable to watch and provokes thought.
John M Upton
CONTAINS SPOILERS - NOT THAT YOU ARE MISSING MUCH MIND! There are good bad movies and there are bad bad movies. Then there are British made totally unintelligible straight to video vehicles such as this codswallop.The plot - for want of a much better word and assuming you can find it that is - basically concerns Michael Caine's dodgy violent armed robber working for an equally dodgy but well connected gentleman (played with slimy smoothness by Edward Fox) in order to lift a van load of banknote paper which we later see, appears to be transported around in the most insecure high security van I have ever seen!! The instrument by which the plot circulates around is something to do with hitting the van when it is in a radio black spot that has been amplified by some steel scaffolding on the nearby cathedral – any science student will tell you this plot device is a load of cobblers for a starter.Along the way as the film plod very slowly onwards we meet some paper thin cardboard cut out henchman including Leslie Grantham who plays the angry cockney wide boy from the east end of London who provides the muscle for the robbery – in other words exactly the same role he plays in pretty much everything he has ever appeared in so no typecasting there then…..The script is woeful, the plot almost non existent and the supposedly inter-weaved storyline about the large choirboy, his rather unpleasant mates and the girl he fancies is completely pointless and irrelevant, making up a large part of the film that should have been jettisoned at the first script read through as it would never have been missed.The clichés are free flowing pretty much throughout. Be it the hilarious meeting of Michael Caine and his employer around a picnic table in the middle of what looks suspiciously like a disused cement works in deepest darkest Surrey or Grantham's stereotype cockney villain.Along the way we also encounter an escort girl who adds nothing to the story whatsoever except she is nice to look at, some quite nice scenery and actually some decent camera work.However the heist itself which supposedly is meant to be at the centre of the story takes ages to eventually turn up, is handled badly, has huge plot holes you could drive a bus through and quite frankly the tarted up cheap and cheerful ex British Gas van is not fooling anyone! Also for such a high security cargo, you would expect at least to find a) an armed Police escort and b) a much sturdier van than the second hand rust bucket that this film's budget seemingly only just managed to stretch to.I can only assume the quite stellar cast were in desperate need of the cash, they certainly would not have done this film to win any awards except maybe a golden raspberry.And for their efforts, this rubbish that was already old and dated when it was made, lurked on a shelf unreleased for years and then went straight to a £1 DVD release in the 'Cheap Tat' section of my local supermarket!!
Popey-6
This really wouldn't look out of place as a student film. Leaden script, poor acting and a plot that never really gets going are just a few of the things that can be said. Caine is OK, but you get the feeling that the rest of the cast just don't care. In fact with better production values and a little more believable action this film could have been at least half-way decent. In the mid- to late-sixties there may have been a call for this type of film but not now. Then, it would have been slightly dangerous and risque, perhaps even exciting (then again perhaps not). Now it collects dust as it sits on the shelves of the local video outlet (really - it does!). The film is just a shadow of what could have been.
