Shiner (2000)

The past catches up with a ruthlessly ambitious boxing promoter.

Director:

John Irvin

Writer:

Scott Cherry (screenplay)

Stars:

Michael Caine, Martin Landau, Frances Barber

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Caine	...	Billy 'Shiner' Simpson
Martin Landau	...	Frank Spedding
Frances Barber	...	Georgie
Frank Harper	...	Jeff 'Stoney' Stone
Andy Serkis	...	Mel
Danny Webb	...	Karl
Claire Rushbrook	...	Ruth
Matthew Marsden	...	Eddie 'Golden Boy' Simpson
Kenneth Cranham	...	Gibson
David Kennedy	...	Chris
Peter Wight	...	Det. Insp. Grant
Nicola Walker	...	Det. Sgt. Garland
Gary Lewis	...	Vic
Derrick Harmon	...	Mikey Peck
Josephine Butler	...	Stephanie

Storyline

Billy Simpson is a shady boxing promoter in South London banned from legitimate fights. It's the biggest day of his life, though, because he has a champion on his hands, his twenty-year-old son, Eddie. Billy's put all of his money on a victory, as have his quarrelling daughters. But Eddie is nervous, an odd guy in a cap is hanging around, the licensed promoter Billy has hired to arrange the evening's other fights has hired dogs, the manager of Eddie's opponent looks down scornfully on Billy and on south London, and Scotland Yard wants to put Billy in jail for the death of a club brawler. When the night goes disastrously wrong, Billy tries to find out who double-crossed him.

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Plot Keywords:

male frontal nudity | male rear nudity | male nudity | male full frontal nudity | pubic hair | 

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Taglines:

All That's Left Is... Revenge.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence, pervasive language and some nudity

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 September 2001 (UK)

Also Known As:

Bilis pravarde Melyne

Filming Locations:

Lower Thames Street, London, England, UK

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$52,843

Company Credits

Production Co:

Geoff Reeve Films, Vision View Entertainment, Wisecroft Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The flag on the wall of Mel's (Andy Serkis') bedroom is the national flag of Angola.

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Goofs

After Gibson shoots Stoney through the head, and Billy crawls toward him, Stoney can clearly be seen blinking as Billy yells at him.

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Quotes

Frank Spedding: I'd pay a million bucks just to see your tongue get ripped out!

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Alternate Versions

Although this film was previously passed for an uncut 18 in the UK by the British Board of Film Classification, the 2007 distributor wanted a 15, so 30 seconds' worth of cuts were made to remove some of the violence, including a man being shot in the head and a man having his arm broken.

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Soundtracks

In the Mood
Written by Wingy Manone, Andy Razaf and Joe Garland
Published by Peter Maurice Music Co., Ltd.
Licensed courtesy of Zomba Record Holdings B.V.

User Reviews

Great in parts, but could've ended better.

Shiner is a film that effectively blended many genres, but just couldn't pull off a decent ending. The film begins as a character/boxing/gangster film, that holds it's own, until it takes the tone of a mystery thriller, and still keeps interest, largely down to a great performance from Michael Caine.

At times, Shiner shows some real potential, with some great scenes and dialogue fleshed out by some decent performances, once it settled into itself, it was still engaging and kept my interest until the ending, where a resounding feeling of "that's it?" surfaced.

Shiner is a good film at times, and could've been great if it had a better ending. It is worth watching though, largely for a blinding performance from Michael Caine.