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:

Film Review: CENTURION (2010)

Writer/Director: Neil Marshall
Running time: 94 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Genre: Action/Adventure/Drama
UK Release date: 23rd April 2010

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 1st May 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This is another take on the legend of the Ninth Legion of Rome. They disappeared in mysterious circumstances when fighting the Picts (Scots) during the time of the Roman occupation of Britain. It’s quite an exciting tale with a lot of blood, guts and gore along the way. Although it’s far from perfect, I quite liked it for its fast pace and some excellent fighting scenes.

The Ninth Legion, lead by General Titus Flavius Virilus are sent north to wipe out the troublesome Picts lead by the fearsome Gorlacon. Amongst their number is Centurion Quintus Dias, who has been posted to the region and knows the type of enemies they will face. They also have a Pict tracker in the shape of the mute Etain, she possesses great skill when it comes to finding the enemy. The Legion is ambushed and almost all are slaughtered, but a handful remain alive and try at first to rescue their captured General and then try to get back south to safety. With the Picts hot on their trail and the elements and terrain against then, can they survive long enough to make it home.

This film obviously didn’t have a huge budget, but considering the limited resourced they had, I think it wasn’t a bad effort. A decent cast was lead by Michael Fassbender as Centurion Quintus Dias, with Dominic West as General Titus Flavius Virilus, David Morrissey as Bothos, Ulrich Thomsen as Gorlacon, Olga Kurylenko as Etain, Liam Cunningham as Brick and Imogen Poots (great name!) as Arianne. All did a good job in, what must have been very trying circumstances.

The plot is quite fast and exciting with some great fight sequences and a few edge-of-your-seat moments. All this was very good and I was enjoying the chase with a nice little dose of betrayal and intrigue thrown in. Unfortunately about two thirds of the way through all the momentum is lost when the surviving few stop to lick their wounds at the house of an outcast. Although an attempt is made to regain some of the lost inertia, it fails to reach the same level. While I thought this section could have bee shorter to help the pacing, I still thought it was a pretty good film. It has a 15 certificate here in the UK which surprised me a little given the level of violence depicted. But over all, a decent enough film (with a few reservations)… Recommended (just).

My Score: 7.1/10

LINKS:
(RT = Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1020558/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/centurion/
Official Site: http://www.centurionmovie.com/
Trailer: