How sad is this?

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

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.

This movie is really lacking a point. What kind of story were they trying to tell? Was there even a purpose or message to this all?Paul W.S. Anderson always has sort of been the king of mediocre movies. I have yet to see a Paul W.S. Anderson movie that is above the level of average. Not that his movies are horrible either, some of them are quite enjoyable but they just fail to make an impact in any way.All that this story is about are a bunch of rebellious teens being lazy and act as if the police are the biggest scum and villains on the Earth, while they are the ones breaking about ever law and causing mayhem, by stealing and wrecking stuff. It could had been a good or at least interesting story if it tried to make a statement about anything but the movie never does. At least I didn't get anything out of the story at all.It also doesn't exactly make any of the characters likable or compelling ones to watch and follow throughout this movie, despite that they are being played by some big name actors. Not that they were being big at the time yet. The movie features a still very young Jude Law and Sadie Frost and a supporting cast that among other consist out of Sean Bean, Jonathan Pryce and Jason Isaacs. Most of the characters however also make a pretty redundant impression. It tries to be a simple movie with a simple story but yet in throws in all these many pointless characters.It's not the worst movie you'll ever see but it's such a pointless and redundant movie to watch that there is no reason why you really should ever watch it in the first place.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

what a terrible piece of film this is. the look, the acting, the pace and the action is appalling. a 5.3 rating on IMDb is way to high for this. i've never liked Sadie Frost so no change there but what the hell is going on with Jude Law !!! he's usually very good but he seems like a spoilt little rich boy trying to be a bad man ha ha ha how terrible.Paul W.S Anderson has made some really sh*t films and i actually think this has to be his worst. what must he be thinking in Pre-production. i'd love to know. i have no sympathy for you.the film is basically sort of set in a future where every teen near enough are out stealing and joy riding cars, thats it really. plus a rivalry against Jude Law's character and Sean Pertwee's character. please believe me that this film isn't worth the purchase at all.......... 1/10..........j.d Seaton

Released from prison after three months, Billy wastes no time in getting back into his previous life of stealing and joy riding. Night one back on the streets sees him and girlfriend Jo racing through the streets in a stolen BMW pursued by the police. Not long after he is right back into the "crash and carry" habit, essentially ram-raiding a shop and getting away with as much stuff as possible before the police can respond. However a raid on one shop brings him into direction conflict with gang leader Tommy – who had already arranged a big money deal with Venning to hit the same shop.At the time of release this film benefited from the Daily Mail and other Middle-England tabloids ringing their hands with worry and condemning the film for encouraging youths to replicate the crimes in the film. Over a decade later, stripped of the hype and "controversy", Shopping looks quaintly dated and the portrayal of disaffected youth in a neo-light strobing world of crime and attitude seems old fashioned and a bit silly. This isn't helped by the fact that the script never aspires beyond this basic aim and characters that are never developed beyond the most basic of motivations. The idea that some foreign viewers would watch this and take it to be a realistic portrayal of modern Britain in rather hilarious to me but in fairness, films are under no pressure to be real. This still leaves a fairly simply story with some very poor dialogue and not much material to work with.Anderson's direction is solid enough in terms of style though – which is really where his strengths continue to lie; but as a result he seems to have a limited interest in depth and his input as writer is to blame for the problems with the material. The cast match this by being pretty and famous but not doing much else. Law is skinny and bland and doesn't do anything other than looking like he is having a teenage strop for the majority of the film. Frost isn't much better and it is left to Pertwee to easily steal the film as a memorable if simple tough guy. James is OK while small roles from Bean, Faithful, Pryce and Walker make the film feel crowded with famous faces – not that any of them add much value outside of this.Overall this is a stylish film but one that now looks dated and rather empty. Without the controversy not much is left and the story and characters are too simple to engage most viewers I would suggest. Interesting to see as part of looking at early work for several British actors but probably not interesting or engaging enough to be worth a look on its own merits as a film.