Shopping

Brilliant if slightly flawed - one for the gutter kids of the 90s.

I didn't think I'd like this film after all these years. Boy was I wrong! Billy is actually much more sympathetic than his role suggests, compared to the criminals of today anyway. He's a loser adrenalin junkie, true, but there's something pure, almost artistic about his love of the chase and addiction to capturing and destroying high powered automobiles.

He doesn't attack people and he isn't in it to make money - he just loves shopping! By which I mean ram-raiding high class shopping malls and stealing odd bits of crap. Billy isn't antisocial, he loves his father (who has given up on him) and has a great platonic love for his girl, whom he doesn't shag but prefers to stay best friends with. All in all, a very sympathetic character that just couldn't exist today. Bit silly, but then I think you had to be around in the 90s to really appreciate what this film's about - there was that time when nobody had any money and car thieves had the edge on the cops, and all their crimes only involved cars and shops anyway, and who cares about some stupid machine? It reminds me a lot of "Crash" - the JG Ballard novel and the late-nineties film - in that it has that Ballardian acknowlegement that we all secretly want the bomb to drop, we want the bad guy to win, and that's what's so great about Shopping. Considering that he's a posh kid Jude Law's performance is stellar.

So if you like the 80s and 90s, like the "industrial" asthetic, love to see cars destroyed, hate (or have hated) authority, watch this film. It's the cools.

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

Shopping is set in a shabby, dark, crumbling post-industrial UK city in the early 90s. Blast furnaces and abandoned factories line the roads, battered old Ford Escorts, Sierras, Capris and early 90s BMWs are everywhere. The plot centres around a grim inner city estate of dilapidated tower blocks and deals with the aspirations of some of its residents.

Jude Law plays self-destructive Billy McKenzie, a 19 year old nihilistic man who despises his society and hates his life. His older girlfriend Jo (played by Sadie Frost) is tired of the scene Billy is involved with, car theft, joy riding and ram raiding, but cannot drag him out of it. Sean Pertwee gives a good performance as another petty criminal Tommy, whose interests have grown to include shifting stolen goods, drugs, organised crime and generally more aspirational ideals.

After being released from his first three-month tenure in prison, Billy immediately seeks out his old mates and gets back into his old ways. Tommy initially tries to make an ally of him with stories of organisation and easy money, but Billy is only interested in getting respect from the estate and destruction and adrenaline and soon makes himself an enemy of Tommy and his crew, with ultimately tragic consequences.

Whilst the screenplay and direction are excellent, the film is totally let down by its script. Many of the character's exclamations and reposes are less than natural, some are downright baffling and some leave you cringing in your seat. It's not consistently bad, there are also genuinely heart wrenching moments and some excellent quotes, but you will also find yourself burying your head in your hands at other points and thinking "nobody says that!". Billy's two mostly annoying mates are stereotypes of stereotypes and there's also some representations of dark and dingy illegal "raves" that are... well, preposterous.

But when all's said and done, despite the cheesy moments in the script, it's a good movie. The story, all the action aside, is really about Billy's seething self-hate and unwillingness to love and be loved. The cars, the ram-raiding, the police, Tommy, the estate... it's all just a backdrop to the story of the slow and tragic destruction of an depressed young man caught in a world he has learned only to hate.