SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Leofwine_draca 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.

mileejones2000 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

i-nemesis I watched this movie with Kidulthood, Adulthood in mind and its not quite on par with noel Clark's productions. I can honestly say i was a little disappointed with some of the characters mainly Kicks (adam deacon), i really enjoyed his performances in kidulthood, Adulthood. However he doesn't shine in this movie like he did in his previous performances. This isn't down to bad acting it was down to screen time he just seemed to be in the background. however Craze (Michael Socha) performance did make up for this in my eyes "bloody northern monkey". The cgi in the movie was poor to say the least, You could see what he was trying to do but the budget must of been way off what he wanted & looked more like something from the 80's. Obviously the writer didn't want to go the "usual" London gangster flick route. Instead it is set in the future (2015) Which for me didn't quite work. I would of much preferred a more real to life story. Be warned if you don't/cant understand London lingo then this will leave you trying to understand what is being said and will just sound like gobble de gook. Even with this in mind i am still going to give this movie a 6/10 just because i enjoy inner city gang films. So to sum up the casting & performances were good including the "New boy." The story was mediocre. the OST was good. My top 10 Gangster/London Flicks 1.Rise of The Footsoldier, 2.Kidulthood, 3.Bullet Boy, 4.Adulthood, 5.Rock 'n' Rolla, 6.Harry Brown, 7.Sugarhouse, 8.Shank, 9.Essex Boys, 10.CassNext review will be Bonded by Blood.Thx for reading, peace out.

chicagopoetry 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.