Shaun Parkes Movies
- 2007
Reportedly adapted from the harrowing real-life experiences of Geoff Thompson (a doorman in Coventry, England), Neil Thompson's Clubbed pulls the audience into the deranged and increasingly violent realm of the club scene in 1980s Britain. The tale begins in the present day, with factory worker Danny (Mel Raido), experiencing prolonged marital estrangement from his wife, Angela (Maxine Peake). The narrative then flashes back to the '80s, when Danny makes the ill-advised decision to tote his young daughters to a brutal working-men's club -- and gets promptly jumped and beaten by henchmen of the crime boss Lord Billy Hennessy (Ronnie Fox). Reeling from the humiliation and suffering of this experience, Danny first attempts suicide, then does an about-face and opts to fight back by training as a boxer and taking a job as a bouncer at a local nightclub. Lo and behold, as it turns out, two of the men with whom Danny trained, Sparky (Scot Williams) and Rob (Shaun Parkes), not only have direct ties to Hennessy but opposing ties -- one is letting Billy's drug dealers in, the other attempting to keep them out. As Hennessy watches the curtain unveiled before his eyes on the men's doings, it sets off a chain of nasty and ugly retributions that ultimately culminate with Danny wresting control of the situation and engaging in violent action against Hennessy's goons. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mel Raido, Shaun Parkes, (more)
Lust, jealousy, and revenge come cloaked in the guise of friendship in this psychological drama. Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) is a history teacher at a high school in London; while elderly Barbara is very bright, she's also severe and domineering, with a strong personality that tends to put people off. Barbara also takes a voyeuristic delight in recording the actions of those around her in her diary in the most minute detail. When Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett), a bright and attractive woman in her mid-thirties, is hired as the school's new art teacher, Barbara believes she may have found someone worthy of her friendship, though she's soon disappointed to discover that Sheba has a husband and two children, a lifestyle that she finds offensively bourgeois. However, Barbara's obsessive interest in Sheba is rewarded when the younger teacher confesses that one of her students, Steven (Andrew Simpson), has developed an obviously sexual interest in her. However, in fact, Steven's crush on Sheba is hardly one-sided, and in time Barbara discover that the two have been making love on a regular basis for months. When circumstances turn Barbara against Sheba, she uses what she knows about the affair to destroy the life of her "friend." Based on the novel by Zoe Heller, Notes on a Scandal also stars Bill Nighy. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, (more)
- 2002
A pair of professional slackers are confronted by their guardian angels in actor Andrew Rajan's directorial debut, Offending Angels. Forsaking his career in the hustle and bustle of London for a life of leisure, irresponsibility, and the occasional sexual conquest, Baggy's (Rajan) substantial immaturity is dwarfed by that of roommate Sam (Andrew Lincoln), a former department-store security guard who recently lost his job after Baggy used the store to embark on an affair with a married woman. With dashed dreams and commitment issues to spare, the duo is soon confronted by guardian angels Zeke (Shaun Parkes) and Paris (Susannah Harker), formerly a squirrel and a dolphin, respectively. Will Sam and Baggy be able to pull themselves together in time to realize their dreams and pull themselves out of a life of comfortable laziness, or are they destined to spend the rest of their lives in a slacker coma? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susannah Harker, Andrew Lincoln, (more)
This big-budget sequel from writer/director Stephen Sommers navigates much of the same cliffhanger territory as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones franchise. It is 1933, eight years after the events of The Mummy (1999). Legionnaire Rick O'Connell Brendan Fraser has married his Egyptologist girlfriend Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) and the couple has settled in London, where they're raising their young son Alex (Freddie Boath). The family's domestic tranquility is shattered when the 3,000-year-old mummified corpse of Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), which has been shipped to the British Museum, is resurrected once again to resume his evil quest for immortality. In the meantime, another ancient threat emerges in the form of the Scorpion King (professional wrestler Dwayne Johnson, aka. the Rock), a mighty warrior frozen in time with his supernatural army. In order to save his family, Rick is forced to seek a mythical pyramid of gold, facing marauding bands of pygmy skeletons, among other hazards. The Mummy Returns co-stars John Hannah, Oded Fehr, and Patricia Velasquez. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, (more)
- 1999
John Thaw of Inspector Morse fame starred in this two-part British miniseries as renowned plastic surgeon Joe MacConnell. His torrid affair with his client Louise Ferman (Frances Barber) ended up having disastrous consequences on his wife and grown children. The story came to a head when McConnell's son James (Stuart Piper), a doctor in training, was involved with a crime that was inexorably linked to McConnell's infidelity. The first episode of Plastic Man, running 90 minutes, was seen in the U.K. on May 12, 1999; the concluding hour-long installment aired the following week. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Thaw, Sorcha Cusack, (more)
- 1999
Nigerian-born director Newton I. Aduaka makes his feature debut with this gritty urban drama set in the seedy neighborhoods of London. Jamie (aka "Rage") is a deeply disaffected young man whose bi-racial heritage leaves him struggling to understand his identity, while Godwin is a talented though sexually conflicted jazz pianist, and Thomas is a young middle class DJ who is constantly at odds with his overbearing parents. The trio's desperate longing to cut a hip-hop album drives them to rashly resort to robbery. When their plans go wrong, the bonds of their friendship are sorely tested. This film was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shaun Parkes, John Pickard, (more)
A group of British youths try to escape their pointless, hum-drum lives with weekends of drug-fueled debauchery in the comedy Human Traffic. Jip (John Simm) works at a shop selling jeans, and his best friend Koop (Shaun Parkes) is an aspiring hip-hop artist who has a day job at a record store. Nina (Nicola Reynolds), Koop's girlfriend, is employed at a burger joint; her best friend is Lulu (Lorraine Pilkington), who has a uniformly low opinion of men. Moff (Danny Dyer) is a waste-case who lives with his father and deals drugs to the group. Come Friday evening, Moff supplies the Ecstasy, the six friends head out to the club, and they spend the next 48 hours playing the popular game "Annihilate This Week." Human Traffic was the directorial debut for filmmaker Justin Kerrigan, who reportedly had problems raising financing due to the film's refusal to explicitly condemn the use of drugs or the actions of its protagonists. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Simm, Lorraine Pilkington, (more)
