Film Review: BLITZ (2011)

Director: Elliott Lester
Writers: Nathan Parker (screenplay), Ken Bruen (novel)
Running time: 93 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 18

Genre: Action/Crime/Thriller
UK Release date: 20^th May 2011

Watched on DVD Saturday 2^nd March 2013.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE UNINTENTIONAL SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

On the face of it this film has a couple things in its favour; a decent cast (ok, some people I’ve heard of at least) and the screenwriter who worked on Duncan Jones’s excellent debut, ‘Moon’. Sadly, as we’re all aware, a decent cast and a screenwriter whose work has been admired in the past is not necessarily a recipe for a good watch. I reckon you can guess which way this one’s headed, but here’s a brief summary first before I get into it.

Brant (Jason Statham) is an uncompromising Detective Sergeant working for the Metropolitan Police (that’s London). When a cop killer begins his murderous rampage it’s Brant who the brass turns to for help. He is partnered up with Nash (Paddy Considine), a gay cop who Brant considers a good policeman. The focus of their attention soon falls on Weiss (Aidan Gillen); a known violent offender who Brant has had a run-in with before. He’s borderline psychotic but somehow manages to stay one step ahead of the police at every turn. He contacts a hack journalist, Dunlop (David Morrissey) and uses him to publicise his hatred of the police. Add to this a sub-plot involving a young female officer, Falls (Zawe Ashton), who had been working undercover in the narcotics division and came out the other end needing to go into rehab and there you have it. The question is, will Brant and Nash catch up with Weiss before he can get to Falls?... I think you can probably guess.

In this film Jason Statham does what he does best, he looks and acts hard. He doesn’t really have to do anything else… apart from claim to be Irish that is (of course). Of the other performances I thought Paddy Considine did a decent job and Aiden Gillen played the psychotic cop killer pretty well too. To be honest, it’s not a very well made film with a plot that doesn’t really tax the little grey cells too much. I think even ardent fans of Mr Statham won’t be rushing out to add this to their DVD collection.

SteelMonster’s verdict: NOT RECOMMENDED (even for fans of ‘The Statham’)

My score: 4.5/10.

IMDb Score: 6.1/10 (based on 36,943 votes when this review was written).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1297919/

MetaScore: No data: (Based on 0 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 46/100 (based on 24 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 39/100 (based on 6,283 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blitz_2011/

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FAVOURITE QUOTES:
Detective Sergeant Tom Brant: A word of advice, girls. If you're picking the wrong fight... at least pick the right weapon.

Barry Weiss: I want a lawyer and a sandwich. Oh, and I want to update my Facebook status.

Porter Nash: You're not supposed to smoke in here.
Detective Sergeant Tom Brant: What are you going to do, shoot me?

LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Official Site: http://www.blitzmovie.co.uk/
Trailer: