Shopping (1996)

Sadly Over-hyped

i must have seen a different film!!

Expected more

The acting in this movie is really good.

Jude Law and Sadie Frost pretend (I don't like to use the word act for such dreadful performances) to be a naughty boy and girl. Frost throws in a faux Irish accent, because being Irish surely makes you sound harder. However, the accent is bad throughout: she ranges from Belfast to Limerick to Essex. By stealing cars and using lots of bad language, the pair go on an adventure to tease the police and raid some shops. At one point Sadie licks the face of a mannequin and hints at something more genuine; however the next police pursuing a car scene leading the police into an urban ambush is back to unintended satire. It is almost a mockumentary on the famous four comic strip style by trying to look so over the top to go beyond the ridiculous. Sean Pertwee is a laughable oik from his first presence, sat on the banisters watching the low lifes play in his criminal arcade emporium (seriously, he was playing a rogue who ran a games shop for teenagers – but being in a disused run down place was supposed to make it a bit gritty). Slapping a car roof to show his annoyance at the naughty children (Frost and Law) getting into bother with the busies is about the level of such a misguided film; although he gets into even more of a bad temper when he hits a pipe against other pipes half way through the 'movie'. Some reviewers says this has dated too early. I would suggest it hasn't dated at all; awful on release, awful almost 20 years later.

Billy and Jo get their kicks from their special type of window shopping. These professional criminals are not in it for the money, but for the fun of it. When Billy gets released from prison, his rival Tommy has taken over the street. A fight for power commences as Billy starts his own gang and hits a shop the day before Tommy had planned to. Tommy makes a move on Billy's girlfriend Jo, who wants Billy to change his lifestyle and move away, instead of fighting Tommy, a fight which will hurt them both. He agrees, but he wants to hit the shopping mall on a final hit. That has never been done before, so it will make him a hero among the others.....It's Andersons first movie, Laws first big screen lead, and to be fair it's really good, even though it's full of flaws and awful dialogue.It can be viewed in two,different ways. On one hand its a very dated 90s urban drama. On the other hand, you can see it as a futuristic urban punk style movie, thanks to the soundtrack and the opening.Pryce gives the film a little gravitas, but he looks mightily bored, and Pertwee hams it up as the main villain. Law is good, as is Frost, but it's clear she wasn't employed for her acting skills.Round the film off with cameos from Bean and Jason Issacs (hello), shopping is one of those rare hard to find Movies that has garnered a cult following.Which means that most hate the film, but the view whole me it, can't explain why.

It's amazing that Paul WS Anderson, out of all those big budget Hollywood sci-fi action junk, his best film could be this much smaller scale, rather fascinating tale of London suffering from youth crime gone amok, with Brit street punks, aimless and violence-prone, many either hooked on, or selling, drugs, destroying cop cars(and the police themselves), driving stolen vehicles through store windows, pelting the police with whatever they can get their hands on. It's absolute anarchy, and we see that the 90's punk culture has served not the most model citizens of society, as they seem to have no career goals, no future, living a life of crime either for kicks or underground business. Billy(Jude Law)has just been released from yet another stint in prison, rejoining his gal pal, Jo(Sadie Frost), as they steal cars and cause general mischief. Billy's "nemesis" is Tommy(Sean Pertwee), someone who has made a little street "enterprize" for himself using footsoldiers to rob stores for merchandise to sell on his "black market". Tommy doesn't like Billy's gung-ho, "adrenaline junkie" ways and warns Jo she should abandon him before he leads her into trouble. Billy likes to live recklessly, on the wild side, and has gained quite a reputation for doing so, a sort of hero to the punks on the streets. Tommy, however, considers himself quite a businessman, peddling his goods at much cheaper prices for those with the money to pay him(his customers normally wish to pay less than he demands, but they know his goods is of a legitimate quality), and sees Billy as a threat to everything he holds dear. There's an inevitable confrontation, but Billy underestimates his rival, with severe consequences. A mall is both men's desired target, and there's an ace up Tommy's sleeve which might just cost Billy dearly. Jo is in love with Billy and has went out of her way to reveal this to him, pleading with him to leave London and run away with her..but, Billy is a stubborn young man who has a problem with Tommy's "takeover" of "his city". I think Anderson effectively shows a London in ruin, with tired, exhausted police(under the command of Jonathan Pryce's saddened, weary Conway)unable to control the youth revolt. We see streets as if war had broken out, with filth and poverty very alive, along with graffiti walls, damaged cars, and trash in abundance. The overwhelming populace of self-destructive, unruly, and unyielding young criminals, with seemingly nothing else to live for but raising hell, are presented in a surprisingly non judgmental way, although, I never felt Anderson was condoning their behavior..I think he was merely showing us a lifestyle outside the norm, following a lost generation fallen under the cracks(..and, we can see that there were a lot of them, too). We can see that Billy's need for kicks and thrills are bound to lead down a path of destruction, and the ultimate crime is that he'll take Jo with him since she's just too in love to get away while the going was good.

Jude Law and Sadie Frost star in a film that could of been. Shopping maintains some nice themes and story lines throughout, but is lacking the finishing touch that turns a low budget flop into a cult classic. The script lacks any real originality and creativity, instead opting for attempts at capturing the attention of youth cultures by trying to sum up all of them in one film - this is never going to work.This is a good film, with a lot of potential, but there are a lot of things missing and a lot of things put in that shouldn't be there - Sean Pertwee playing basketball on top of a high rise building just doesn't feel quite right. Combined with a pretty poor performance from Jude Law, even Frost is better, who is generally unconvincing as a troubled tearaway on a downward spiral. He's far too pretty and doesn't have the edge that you want his character to have.Not worth seeing really, but if there are any aspiring, young and creative British film makers out there who want to remake it, i would definitely love to see what they could do.