SunnyHello Nice effects though.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Wyatt There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

p-stepien London 2015. Society has split in two leaving the economy and most basic services in the hands of private corporations. The city itself has been split between the well-off and the rest. Within the cut-off squalors of the capital's streets gangs of hoodlums divide and rule the limited wealth. Food has become the most important commodity: munchies are worth life and death. The Paper Runners, led by Rager (Ashley Bashy Thomas), is a small gang of misfits with a knack for getting stuff without bloodshed (don't cause any harm and no harm can come to you). Rager is a role model for his little brother, Junior (Kedar Williams-Stirling), a get-away specialist, as well as the remainder of the crew: Kickz (Adam Deacon), Craze (Michael Socha) and Sweet Boy (Jan Uddin). However in this dog-eat-dog world not everyone has such scruples and youngling Tugz (Jerome Holder) is the worst of the lot..."Shank" is an explicit orgy of sound and images pasted together with an initial headache reaction. After the initial onslaught the fast editing and video-clip montage on acid does recede a couple of notches, so the story can be fleshed out. But even than we are input sequence after sequence of rapturous music and occasional computer-inspired scenes drowning out the plot and most of the character development. At times the movie actually feels more like a filmed video game (or more like a singular mission/level of it), where occasional power bars and animations fit effortlessly as part of the experience. This all-action approach did however cause many key moments of the movies to lack enough contemplation - Mo Ali was unable to take a breath and let the moment sink emotionally into the viewers. The occasionally uninspiring derivative plotting and/or dialogue don't help to overcome this obstacles either...Nonetheless this unrelenting storytelling isn't all amiss, as in between this overzealous approach to innovative methods of telling a film story, you find a decent amount of subtexts and brilliant ideas. Unfortunately for Mo Ali his incapability to show restraint (and unwillingness to use some more classical artistic tools) hindered the intriguing concept of a boy being unable to properly identify feelings of emptiness and anguish, instead channelling them into revenge and anger. Also several scenes were extremely inspiring in their capability of mixing emotions or simple storytelling with a modern cutting edge freshness to them. Despite being uneven and at times lazy it does however warrant a look, as there are several gems hidden inside its chaotic shell.Despite everything said the movie is at least a brilliant score to the movie, which shows that England remains the epicentre of adventurous music.

Public-Enemy-01 First things first, i have seen both Kidulthood and Adulthood and you can not compare them to this film. Although i think they are better films they are not the same therefore not comparable.I'm a 18 year old black guy, i live in London. I try and stay out of trouble and keep myself to myself, so i found a strong similarity between me and The Paper Chasers.This film was a complete shock to me cos i never expected what they did with it and actually i'm rather impressed.The film was designed to show adults why youths of today are so 'out of control'. They designed the film to show adults how London treats us and how WE see London through our own eyes as the youth of London. It was also designed to show the youths that London doesn't have to be a ghetto, just because it seems that way for few years doesn't make it so. The film is like The Warriors, i made that comparison very early in and i love the idea of the Tugz being sorta like the Riffs and Paper Chasers being the Warriors, traveling through London meeting different gangs. OK, the acting was a bit cringe-worthy at times, the jokes were pretty corny and the plot needed a bit of work, but you have to remember that it is a VERY low budget film, so sometimes you have to let things like that slide. I loved the Kidulthood references, i actually LOLed when the Paper Chasers were on the old bus! I also liked Tempa T and D Double E's performances, i'm a grimekid what can i say! And that Main guy from the Tugz had the most evil smile i have ever seen. LOLAt the end they should have, shown London how it really was and that would have closed the film perfectly for me.So, this film was a VERY good idea, if only there was a bigger budget where they could have sorted the plot out a bit more and fixed up on the acting a little, this film would be around the 7-8 out of 10 mark, but right now i give it a 6.Good film, but it has its flaws.Thanks for reading. P.E. No.1

camera-shy British film is going down the pan, unless you're one of the few lucky Brits who get millions to play with like Ridley Scott or Neil marshall. All we ever seem to get are British gangster movies and they're always utter s##t, does no one have any other ideas?.This one in particular was the worst god damn thing iv ever wasted 20 min of my life on, i know team America said every film needs a montage but do you really need one every 5 min? i felt like i was watching MTV base......i was just waiting for that dizzy rascal guy to jump out and spin a rented medallion into the camera. I have no idea if this film got any better and frankly i don't care, every copy should be recalled and burned and anyone who actually spent money on this should get it back, unfortunately we cant get our lives back.If you have any sense at all you will put this back on the shelf and walk away and spread the word.

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.