Shopping

It’s not that Paul W.S. Anderson is terribly interesting as a director or as a person.  But he does seem sorta like Roland Emmerich (2012, The Day After Tomorrow, 10,000 BC) in that he makes these dreadful movies that somehow still get theatrical releases.  They’re not just mediocre films but below average even for today’s low standards in action and adventure.  But I guess it doesn’t help that I support these pictures by watching them in theaters.  What was I complaining about again?

Right, so what started out as an innocent review of Event Horizon turned into…something.  “Quest” is a bit too strong and “revisit” seems too casual.  This is more of a reexamining of Anderson’s career through Soldier.  I ain’t never seen no Resident Evils so I’m drawing the line there.  This won’t be pretty.

Anderson’s debut was Shopping and from the plot summery it sounds like it should be awesome.  Here it is verbatim from Netdicks:

“In a bleak, futuristic British society, ex-con Billy (Jude Law) and audacious Jo (Sadie Frost) lead a gang of ‘ram-raiders’ who steal cars, drive them through shop windows and steal whatever booty they can get their hands on before the cops arrive. When a local drug lord (Sean Pertwee) decides the intrepid couple is infringing on his business, he challenges the pair to a bizarre and deadly race.”

That synopsis is completely inaccurate.  To be fair IMDB has a better description but this one is so egregious that I’ve drummed up a short list of problems.

1. In the movie we’re not told that this thing takes place in the future or are even given any clues that it’s the future.  It looks like modern day 1994 (well actually if it wasn’t for the 90’s soundtrack I would’ve thought they shot this at least five years earlier than that).  There aren’t flying cars, weird futuristic clothing, space weapons, crazy technology, etc.  The thing is I don’t know if the story is supposed to take place in the future or if people just made that assumption when they put their summery together.

2. Billy doesn’t lead a gang until the very end of the film and I don’t think the term “ram-raiders” is ever used in the picture.  The rest of that sentence is also misleading but I’ll get into that more after one more point.

3. The very last bit about a drug lord challenging Billy to a “bizarre and deadly race” doesn’t happen.  That’s just a blatant lie.  I was really disappointed when it didn’t happen too.  Well Anderson would correct that in Death Race.

So this movie is supposed to be about these people that crash cars into stores and steal shit.  The obvious problem is that this only happens once in the entire film.  I mean it’s pretty cool when it does happen but there kind of should’ve been more of that.  Like the first time we’re supposed to witness this craziness Billy doesn’t even drive his car into the store front.  He gets out and throws a trash can through the window.  That’s bending the rules.

To Anderson’s credit this thing is shot well and the acting is good.  The production is very dark with tons of shadows and good camera work.  The actors go through some good emotional states like brooding, yearning, euphoria, sadness, confliction, etc.  I like the characters we’re given and the world they live in.  They’re all so care free and get off on stealing cars and driving them fast.  They seem fairly happy with their lives.  I think I pretty much get who these people are.  However, also to Anderson’s credit the script seriously lacks structure (he wrote it).  The snag and irony of the whole thing is that this story of speed demons that live fast and on the edge unfolds at a snail’s pace.  I’m trying to think of what the time was wasted on but I can’t even remember.  That’s how dull it came to be.

The first ten minutes, the last five minutes and the five minutes in the middle where we do finally get a car crashing into a store are cool.  But with the other hour of material there’s nothing going on.  The relationship between Billy and Jo is good because they’re attracted to each other but they’re partners and not boyfriend girlfriend.  This is focused on but that and the rest of the story isn’t presented and isn’t unfolded in an interesting way.

It’s a real shame but what are you gonna do?  Shopping does have one of the best car crashes ever filmed though.  This car shoots into the air and then hits the pavement rolling violently a bunch of times until the whole thing is destroyed.  It’s impressive and cool because they did it for real and not with computers.  I don’t think the film is worth seeing just for that but it’s something.