Shadow Run (1998)

Haskell (Michael Caine) is assigned a job by his boss, the aristocratic Landon-Higgins (James Fox), to highjack a high security van in broad daylight while it's in the shadow run (out of ... See full summary »

Director:

Geoffrey Reeve

Writer:

Desmond Lowden

Stars:

Michael Caine, James Fox, Matthew Pochin

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Caine	...	Haskell
James Fox	...	Landon-Higgins
Matthew Pochin	...	Edward Joffrey
Rae Baker	...	Julie
Kenneth Colley	...	Larcombe
Christopher Cazenove	...	Melchior
Rupert Frazer	...	Maunder
Leslie Grantham	...	Liney
Tim Healy	...	Daltrey
Emma Reeve	...	Victoria Robertson
Katherine Reeve	...	Zee Robertson
Angela Douglas	...	Bridget
Maurice Thorogood	...	Walter
Richard Tuck	...	Morton
John Bray	...	Hallam

Storyline

Haskell (Michael Caine) is assigned a job by his boss, the aristocratic Landon-Higgins (James Fox), to highjack a high security van in broad daylight while it's in the shadow run (out of radio contact with the main security firm). He assembles a team to carry out the heist, but things don't go according to plan and Haskell begins to think his boss might be double crossing him. Add to this, a teenage boarding school pupil has already witnessed some of the meetings of the team and Haskell's in real trouble.

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Taglines:

A hardened gangster plans to steal £100 million in 20 minutes... and take full advantage of the shadow run. All he has to fear is his partner.

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Genres:

Crime

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 June 1998 (Iceland)

Also Known As:

Eglimata sti skia

Filming Locations:

Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Majestic Films & Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

About 5 minutes into the film, there is a long dialog between Caine & Fox. Caine is wearing sunglasses and the reflection shows a crew member standing several feet away, not Fox.

User Reviews

Is there no script bad enough for Michael Caine to say no?

If ever there were a film more mystifyingly pointless than this £1 shop favorite, it's hard to imagine – and even harder to tell exactly what possible audience it was made for. On paper it sounds uninspired but reasonable enough, with Caine's old school armed robber planning to steal paper used for banknotes with inside information from James Fox's toff and electronic help from Kenneth Colley's terminally ill security guard. Only that's only half the story - much of the plot is taken up by a bullied chubby schoolboy who stumbles across the bloody aftermath of one of Caine's botched armoured car jobs but can't get anyone to believe him. Amazingly the botched robbery is never reported to the police, so they just go on not believing him throughout the film while he's cruelly bullied by the vicious, er, school choirboys, one of who is nearly four foot tall. Producer-director Reeve seems to think the film's suspense lies on whether he'll still be able to sing in the choir competition.

It's all played out almost like the kind of movie that Tim Nice But Dim would make if he ever became a producer, throwing loads of money at Michael Caine and getting a few down on their luck character actors down to the family estate for the weekend. Ponies, fancy dress parties, public schools with headmasters in tennis attire, suggestive dialogue about lacrosse - even in the 50s this would have seemed a somewhat outdated view of Britain, but in a late-90s crime thriller it's just pitiful. Just to add to the amateurishness, some of the parts are played by real teachers, vergers or cops (no prizes for. Guessing wh. ich onesfromtheir. Awkward line. Delivery), not to mention the director's daughters. As if that weren't home movie enough, it's the kind of film where even the ponies get credited and where characters have picnics in abandoned factories to explain the backstory at great length. TV crime reconstructions have more panache than this flattened relic, and to make matters even worse, the final double-double cross is almost Robbie Moffat bad, and that's not a claim I make lightly. No surprise that this skipped theatres and went straight to ultra-cheap DVD, but you'll still find yourself wondering how and why it ever got made in the first place.