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 20-year-old son, Eddie. Billy's put all his money on a victory, as have his quarreling daughters. But Eddie is nervous, an odd guy in a cap is hanging about, 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 Billy in gaol 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 | promoter | boxing | 

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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:

London, England, UK

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 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

Billy 'Shiner' Simpson: How am I supposed to make an important phone call with you two squabblin' in the background?

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Soundtracks

For Once In My Life
Performed by Andy Williams
Written by Orlando Murden & Ronald Miller
Published by Jobete Music Co., Inc./EMI Music
By Arrangement with Sony Music Licensing Sony Records

User Reviews

A knockout drama that delivers

I remember taking my Dad to see this, almost ten years ago now. It only ran for two weeks, and we went two days shy of it's quick departure. As not really knowing anything at all about the movie, except for some info on the leaflet I took, before we made our way into the cinema, I got my money's worth. I love the way this movie unfolded. Caine, this fine actor, just superb here, plays Billy, nickname Shiner Simpson, indeed a really bad guy, who holds underground fights, one of most recent, which has put the loser into a vegetative state, only now he's met a much worse fate. The cops are soon knocking on Billy's door, and it's the worst timing. Billy void of any sympathy, stating the victim was "always in a vegetative state" has bigger things to worry about on this special day. It's the day of his son's fight, where everything's riding on him. The son seems to be the only human, Billy cares about. He treats people like ants, including the thugs, security, who work for him. He's also a manipulator, even with the law, which I liked. The two detectives, a male and female, are persuaded to hold off the Q and A, until after the fight, at Caine's request. Yes, they agree. This has Caine, jumping into the shower, euphoric and all. This deal's made on one condition, at the detective guy's request: Caine gets a signed autograph from his son's competition, Golden Boy. He's got balls, this guy. The female cop is less enthused, and not amused. And we see how vicious Caine can get, when one of his associates finds a whole batch of crap fighters, at Billy's expense, despite the fact the victim is, a small sixty plus guy, who after getting his arm broken in a discreet fashion, by Billy and his thugs, is then brushed by a passing car who hits him where it hurts most. One of his fighters lasts 29 seconds which was such a laugh, the loser decked. There are some funny bits, partly thanks to Andy Serkis's performance as one of Caine's thugs, where everything's a joke to him, that so much resembles me. Billy's day is about to get a whole lot worse. His son, who really didn't have a fighting son when racked up against this other bloke, decamps and is later shot. Here, the movie becomes a surprisingly good thriller, where Caine is pointing his finger left, right, centre, at a sea of suspects, where's he overtaken by rage and revenge. His warring adversary, Martin Landau, a representative of the other fighter, is one such suspect, who Caine hijacks, which eventuates in a small chain cat collision in a tunnel, Landau getting the upper hand on Caine. The two detectives monitoring Caine's moves, have lost him too, so they're not happy chappies, where now, their investigation takes a backseat to this tragedy. There's one thing Caine is great at, and that's playing the villain, as seen in Mona Lisa, even in On Deadly Ground. Here, he reprises that badness, where almost at the same time, he was doing The Quiet American that earned him another Oscar nomination. His bedside manner at the start, when going the wrong way down a one way street, and asking the oncoming motorist to ever so politely (sarcasm reference) move over was a great and comic start to this underrated movie, that becomes increasingly violent towards the end, specially in it's great shoot out climax, as bullets fly, after the killer and his motives catch us by complete surprise, as though we been led on a different track. This is a great vehicle for Caine, one of those fine actors, that's a dying breed, who'll hopefully be around for many more years.