This is a remake of a 1938 Will Hay film SPOILERS
It's a little known fact that this film is a straight remake of the little-known 1938 Will Hay film, 'Don't Whistle While We Work'. It's a comedy thriller about a gangster who realises there's a spot on a road near a bank where a police whistle can't be heard due to the wind blowing in a certain direction. His gang hold up a bank van but are foiled by a local schoolboy (Charles Hawtry) and an inept choirmaster (Will Hay).
I'm joking of course. There was no such film. But 'Shadow Run' has the feel of a very creaky 1940s British 'B' movie dressed up with a bit of pointless modern sex and violence: there are high jinks in a cathedral (Leslie Grantham's indignant 'But I have to pray' made me chuckle) Bunteresque schoolboys, tweed wearing toffee nosed twits, camp waiters and querolous schoolmasters in clip-on bow ties. With a bit of tightening up and cutting down to an hour, it might have passed muster as an episode of, say, 'The Professionals' in the late seventies; but that this was made in the late nineties is just embarrassing.
There are numerous plot holes of course; the basic premise of the 'shadow' is highly unlikely for a start; and the ten year old ex British Gas 'security van' with boot-sale technology is just laughable; Caine's elderly villain who will kill at the drop of a hat in public and broad daylight; the shotgun that turns into a highly accurate elephant gun; and the cartoon 'cliffhanger' ending which is the worst I've seen since 'To The Devil A Daughter'.
Still - it's worth a look in a 'so bad it's good' way for Michael Caine/James Fox fans, and since it only cost me 25p from a charity shop I'm not complaining. In a way it's a tribute to Sir Michael Caine. Watch out for the little references to his film career, eg:
References to a 'Newcastle job' - 'Get Carter'.
Several shots of a black windmill - 'The Black Windmill'
We see a failed attempt to blow the doors off a van which are literally bloody, reminding us of 'blow the bloody doors off' in 'The Italian Job'.
A car hangs off a cliff momentarily in the final scene - again, this references 'The Italian Job'.