Critic Reviews

• Robbie Collin, News of the World

  There are a fair few good ideas in Shank -- a nicely-staged market scene featuring Colin Salmon and an animated fight scene being two -- but they don't come together into anything that even looks halfway like a movie.

• Graham Young, Birmingham Post

  The risible script is incoherent, the dialogue frequently unintelligible and the story is nothing new.

• Cath Clarke, Guardian [UK]

  Just when you thought grimy gang drama had run out of steam, along comes this dystopian variation, set in a recession-ravaged London 2015.

• Michael Leader, Film4

  The film becomes a pummelling succession of indulgent flourishes that serve no narrative purpose.

• Dan Stewart, Little White Lies

  With its jarring slang, reckless narrative and offbeat imagery, it's as close to being A Clockwork Orange for the Broken Britain generation as we have. It's up to you to decide whether that's a good thing or not.

• Trevor Johnston, Radio Times

  This is one of the dullest gang flicks ever to see the light of day...

• Alex Zane, Sun Online

  The whole of Shank is a misconceived mess with music video director Mo Ali forgetting to find an engrossing story to link a series of MTV-type scenes.

• Matt Glasby, Total Film

  That the entire narrative can be easily compressed into a 90-second dream sequence says much more than the garbled anti-violence messages.

• Philip Wilding, Empire Magazine

  If this is the future of film then we're all doomed.

• Matthew Turner, ViewLondon

  Shank boasts some lively direction and has a couple of nice ideas but is ultimately let down by a repetitive script, some poor performances and a dodgy central message.

Read all 10 critic reviews