Shopping

This movie is an interesting debut from Paul (WS) Anderson. Dark sets and cool visuals teamed with techno music really get you going. You can see the visual style from the director Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil.

Speaking of MK, that Orbital song is used in this movie too.

I think this is the first film were Jude Law actually looks prettier than his female co-star.

A low-budget crime film! This movie marks the first major leading role for actor Jude Law as Billy, who surprisingly just got off jail and with his girlfriend Jo (Sadie Frost), are getting ready for new adventures. Steal cars and ram-raid them into shop windows,However, as time passes, the rush fades with Jo wanting out of their hectic lifestyle. With newcomer Tommy (sean Pertwee) on the scene, Billy is pushed into taking on ever riskier targets which could spell the end of all. The story, about Billy's seething self-hate and unwillingness to love and be loved. This movie has something unique that makes it stand out. The plot line, the pulsating soundtrack ,and the good cast in Jude Law, Sadie Frost ,Sean Pertwee, Jonathan Pryce and Sean Bean. Jude law was a good actor and is easy to identify as a rising star.sadie frost is such a babe but can't act. Shopping is the one movie which directs by Paul Andersons,if you are interested,then check it out.

For kicks, young and beautiful Jude Law (as Billy) and disaffected tough Sadie Frost (as Jo) steal cars, drive them into stores, and trash the places. They call it "Shopping". A rivalry develops between the two joy-riders and smarmy Sean Pertwee (as Tommy), who is the best store thrasher in the English neighborhood. Director Paul Anderson's star displays only a fraction of his later acting success; surprisingly, most of the spark occurs between Ms. Frost and Mr. Pertwee. "Shopping" seems meant to be compared with "A Clockwork Orange" - a certain musical interlude drives that point home - but, neither Mr. Law nor the film approach Malcolm McDowell or Stanley Kubrick. Not that it doesn't have style, mind you. And, Jonathan Pryce, Sean Bean, and Marianne Faithful help make the trip. Anderson should have ended with Law being thrown from the car into a bloody display with the store mannequin; instead, he blinked...

***** Shopping (6/24/94) Paul W.S. Anderson ~ Jude Law, Sadie Frost, Sean Pertwee

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.

This film just plain doesn't work. The protagonists are a bunch of losers - just out for thrills, like joyriders are meant to be, yes - but it attempts to glamourise and politicise them - to give them deeper motives - in a way that completely fails to come across.

Meanwhile, you have the Sean Pertwee character, who's meant to be a sell-out, who is violating the spirit of the life they lead by going 'legit' and forming associations with true organised crime. But instead, next to this bunch of anarchistic, narcissistic overgrown children, he appears to be the only responsible, sympathetic, adult character. Meanwhile, Jonathan Pryce's paternal policeman is completely ineffective in what is meant to be the true adult presence of the film.

There's one scene which epitomises the failings of the film - Billy's rebuff of Jo's attempted seduction by saying sex is too dangerous in the 90's. Never mind that he'd already attempted to chat up a stranger in a club! It reinforces one's perception of him as a big kid unwilling to grow up. . . Characters' actions have to be believable, and his aren't. No wonder one TV version I saw cut the scene short, it's almost embarrassing to watch. Hence the title I've chosen for this review!