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Billy
“Shiner” Simpson (Michael Caine) is an ex boxer trying to make as a major
promoter. He has the fights organised, he has the venue, and he has the big
name title fight all prepared. His major fighter is by no chance his own son,
and at only 20 years old, he is definitely no the way up. The problems however
soon become evident. The fighters lined up for the earlier fights of the
nights are nowhere near up to standard as to what will be expected, Billy’s
son has a bad case of the nerves, and on top of all this, the police want to
arrest Billy for his involvement in an illegal fight that went bad.
Facing
financial ruin if his son looses the fight, Billy is under enormous pressure,
and he has a way with people that make them assume more than there fair share
of the worry he would normally be under. When his son looses the big fight, it
becomes the belief of Billy that he was paid to take a fall, and now he must
find who is responsible.
Being in a
similar vein to Guy Ritchie’s “Snatch” it’s hard not to compare the two
(especially considering the time they were made being relatively close
together), the worlds are close together, with the main difference here being
a slightly more legal bunch of characters, and a much drier sense of humour.
The characters on a whole are far less likeable, but the story is what counts.
Speaking of which, it all seems to be going well up till the last 15 odd
minutes, when the seams start to show fairly badly.
All up it’s a
highly watch able movie, not as enjoyable as either of Guy Ritchie’s London
underground films though. Michael Caine gives an impressive performance, and
everything else is about what is to be expected. It is dirty, dingy, and there
is foul language a plenty. As for the ending, well that one thing is out of
the ordinary. It’s not all that original, and you won’t get dragged in as much
as other movies, but it’s still worth a watch.
The movie was
made in 2000, so it’s no surprise to hear that the picture is not a victim to
great amounts of visual problems. There are some film artefacts here and
there, but nothing to spoil your viewing pleasure. They are the most prominent
of the errors, there are some minor instances of edge enhancement, but again
it’s not going to ruin anything for you. All up it’s a pretty good transfer.
You get a
fairly decent 5.1 channel mix on Shiner, although not the best I’ve heard,
it’s far from the worst as well. The surrounds and subwoofer are used
sparingly, but they’re used when needed. The voices are clearly audible
thankfully, and with such thick English accents this is a big plus. There’s
also a 2.0 channel mix there if you don’t have the necessary equipment to make
use of the good stuff.
You get the
almost mandatory theatrical trailer as well as a fairly substantial making of
documentary. As you can tell there’s not heaps there to keep your attention,
but it’s good to see there’s more than the bare minimum at least. More again
would better still, and considering the fact that it’s only 4 years old, you
could fairly expect there to be some more included, but such is life.
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Theatrical
Trailer
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‘Making of’
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