It's not very often I feel this way about a movie, but after watching Shifty, I was really left wondering if this was a good movie or not? On one hand, I really like the friendship both Shifty and Chris make, but on the other hand this film is really slow for the sort of action you expect from dodgy, gritty movies from the UK, and with the premise of dealers working in dodgy estates where things do get heated, but really this film didn't really get to the highs they made it out to be.
Riz Ahmed is excellent as Shifty and does play the role well, but Daniel Mays wasn't that great, nether was Jay Simpson, a builder who's hard drug problem has landed himself into bother, and the role of the others were so mediocre it was a bit boring to say the least.
Shifty is a strange movie, you either like it or don't, but with me I was just left in the middle ground, so that's why I would suggest renting this before buying it, as it's a bit of an acquired taste. I like the way they went for an intelligent guy who just didn't deliver; that was a good move, but otherwise it's a bit slow - and at the end you really don't care whether Shifty does go or stay.
The extras are not bad for this blu-ray, you get commentary from the director and Riz, who plays Shifty, a behind the scenes look at the film; a music video with Plan B and Sway (which was OK) and a lot more stuff, including a sampler of the soundtrack, which I didn't understand, as most of it was in the film anyway! Eran Ceevy has put on some promos so we can see his work.
Not a bad Blu-ray, the sound was pretty good with it's 5.1 mix, but the video was not up to a good bitrate, but I guess this was due to compression. Don't get me wrong, the picture is good, but I would have liked to see higher bitrates like 25MB/s - but that's not really the issue, and the film looks pretty good on any screen.
So-so, definitely rent before buying though!