Review of Shank (2010) by Talitha B — 24 Sep 2010

Dancing around some interesting, if not slightly irrelevant ideas - Dysatopian London, youth-gang warfare, groups led by hilarious characature-type creations (a disfigured indian, a mockney-pub landlord and a hilariously OTT topless white boy in an open fronted hoodie and Morpheous shades) Mo Ali's Shank initially treads a fine line between being mildly arresting and unintentionally hilariously bad... unfortunately, it is soon evident that it is mostly the latter, this is another of those now extremely familier, supposedly- British, crass pieces of nonsense that aspires to very little and achieves a whole lot less.

In fact, the entire premise is flawed from the outset, a world ruled by violence and hunger - championed by a group of boys who "don't believe in violence???" The same bunch of supposedly moral kids - spend the entire film jeering over savage dog fights, effing and blinding and shagging tatty girls and seeking revenge for the death of their unlikely mentor - boxer, older brother... hero... Rager (bashy.) Also, something that cannot be ignored is the horrific (and I mean, at times stomach-churningly bad) performances. U.K. Hip Hop/Grime star Bashy - isnt bad, but, he isnt that good either. The girl from skins is barely used, Adam Deacon is generally unbearable and everyone else is either laughably bad or completely forgettable.

It also doesnt help that the evolved cockney dialogue and script are so terrible they leave you reeling in every scene. After 25 minutes it is relatively easy to grow tired of everyone screaming "You murkin' Bludd!!" and "Shut Up Bitch!" and one feels that this is a bit of a slight on the intelligence of the average young Londoner.

The few highlights are the rare moments of intentional humour (a great - but unexplained - moment of spontanious group dance tuition makes for an excellent little segment) and the soundtrack, British Drum n Bass and Grime punctures every scene reinforcing the frenetic nature of the film (and unfortunately the editing.) Mo Ali's direction often shows promise - the over used but nicely filmed slow motion shots are great to watch but sadly, too often, Ali opts for super charged edits that cut from the action and emphasise the low budget - add to that the hideous miss-steps involving cheap computer graphics and animation that try to drive home their purpose with the subtlety of a drill through concrete and completely distract from the pace of the movie.

Not. A rewarding experience.