(24 May 2012)

Great Statham flick!

I consider myself a Jason Statham connoisseur. I enjoy most of the movies he's been in with the exception of "Revolver" which I found to be too darn bizarre (I understand the movie, but it was executed all wrong by Guy Ritchie). Based on the negative reviews here on Amazon I dived into this movie expecting the worst and instead I was pleasantly surprised by how great this movie was for being a relatively low budget UK import that skipped theaters here in the States. I'll get this out of the way: This movie doesn't have the non stop action of a Transporter or Expendables flick. That's not to say there's no action or that's boring (it's not), but it doesn't have the over the top choreographed action that are a staple of many of his movies. However, Statham is still a bad ass mo-fo in this flick. He's a pissed off cop with his hands tied behind his back because he's under media scrutiny after using force against bad guys while off duty. Because the movie attempts to stay somewhat grounded in reality it would be silly for his character to be fighting ten guys at a time, getting into unnecessary shootouts, car chases and blowing up buildings. Statham does kick ass when appropriate and it is always appropriate and satisfying. Statham's character isn't up against a gang of mercenaries or the Chinese army, he's pursuing one maniac, thus the "lack of action".Also, the bad guy in to movie was Tommy Carcetti in "The Wire" and is Petyr Baelish in "Game of Thrones". So not only do you get Statham playing a restrained badass, you get the mayor from The Wire!! And he's F'ing crazy in this movie! How could you not appreciate that?If you don't at least somewhat like this movie you were raised by over protective parents and still suck your thumb when you go to bed at night.I'm out!

thanasis z (24 May 2012)

Statham's fans will not be disappointed

Let's face it, Statham is not Lawrence Olivier.Or Pacino, or DeNiro. Heis not even Bruce Willis or Mel Gibson. OK, he is one of the bestaction heroes the last 10 years, but he is not like these action heroesof 90's and 80's. But these facts are already familiar to those whowill watch a movie with him as the main character. This movie is not sogood as BANK JOB, TRANSPORTER or THE MECHANIC, even Statham himself hasgiven better performances. But, i enjoyed that movie, and i think thatyou will enjoy too. Nice music, a villain who is not as the most otherbad guys that we see in similar movies, good directing. Perfect forsummer night.

(22 May 2012)

Great hardcore action

A serial killer targeting cops meets his match in Statham, whose acting here marks a strong inprovement over his previous work. There's still enough action for five or six movies, but the plotline is relevant too. Never slows down for a second, and is a must for any fan of Statham.

(22 May 2012)

JASON GOES ROGUE

Action star Jason Statham goes at it again in BLITZ. This time he's a loose cannon London cop on the trail of a serial cop killer. He teams up with a gay inspector (Paddy Considine) and closes in on the psycho (Aidan Gillen), climaxing in a brutal showdown.Underscoring the film is a poorly defined connection between Statham and Gillan's characters.BLITZ is a strictly adrenaline-propelled movie, not really breaking any new ground and suffers from the thick accents that often become undecipherable.Statham has a strong screen presence and Considine is effective, making BLITZ an okay actioner.

ThreeGuysOneMovie (16 May 2012)

All Out Blitz

I didn't really know too much about this one going in. I had not heardof this film, but I saw it on the new release list and decided to giveit a try. It has a strong cast with some interesting actors, includingAidan Gillen who plays Littlefinger on Game of Thrones, and PaddyConsidine, who I loved in Dead Man's Shoes back in 2004.The plot here is mostly derivative. There is a serial killer on theloose who is killing police officers. Jason Statham plays Detective TomBrant, a hardboiled cop who is tasked with tracking down the murdererbefore he kills again. The whole thing plays out like one of the DirtyHarry movies, or maybe Nighthawks with Sylvester Stallone.Reused plot aside, I actually enjoyed this film. In a summer filledwith CGI laden special effects I enjoyed watching a good old fashionaction movie. Jason Statham does an OK job playing Jason Statham andAidan Gillen impressed me as Blitz but his performance did seem tochannel a little too much of the Joker from The Dark Knight. PaddyConsidine was good here as well playing the "reluctant partner" toStatham.I don't really know too much about the Director Elliot Lester and basedon IMDb he only has one other feature film from back in 2006. Lesterdid an interesting job here. I noticed a lot of use of the extremeclose ups the seemed to remind me of a Sergio Leone film. Overall hedid a good job of giving it a film noir sort of vibe.Hey, nobody is going to be winning any awards in February for this one,but it was an entertaining watch. After one of the worst summer movieseasons in recent memory this movie was like a little oasis in a desertof suck.

remco-dejong (16 May 2012)

to much jason

The story is so thin. there is not a clou or idea more in the moviethen this: a guy kills cops. We know who that guy is. Now the policeneeds to find a way to arrest them. An action movie doesn't need a bigstory, But there also isn't much action. Its just jason statham actingtough. But he does it in such a way its laughable. Ordering a drink atthe bar and not paying for it. Whats this..2nd grade?I had high hopes jason statham would be the new bruce willis with hiscool vibes. But last few movies i think he is more going down the padof becoming the 2nd steven seagal4/10

Richard (16 May 2012)

I Loved This Movie!!

Blitz is not getting much respect from reviewers on IMDb, and I'm verysurprised by this. I loved it from the first minute to the last andordered the Blu-Ray on line before the credits had even finished.Statham plays an aggressive cop with an attitude, and if he's got aweapon in his hands (like a hockey stick) he'll wield it like a pro.Paddy Considine plays a gay cop who's capable of taking the law intohis own hands, and this allows him to work with Statham justbeautifully.Aidan Gillen plays a fabulous psycho with a thing for killing cops, andhe's been one of my favourite British actors for the past 10 yearsanyway, so it would have been hard for him to screw this one up.The action from the opening scene is great, Statham's lines areterrific stuff and had me laughing hard more than once, the odd-teamStatham and Considine create is brilliant, the story doesn't get boggeddown in personal problems, there are no annoying girlfriends, wives orkids to pull the actors and audience sideways away from the story (somedirectors seem to love putting that type of stuff in), the continuityissues others have mentioned are so minor they don't matter, thesoundtrack was perfect, and the ending was everything I hoped it wouldbe.This film is never going to make the 'Greatest Films Ever Made' list,but its sure as hell fun to watch as far as I'm concerned. It doesn'tbeat around the bush getting started, doesn't waste time during thefilm, keeps up the fun, and what more do you want from Statham and anaction film? To the film's detractors I say 'lighten up'! It's obviousfrom the first 10 minutes the film's creators weren't chasing AcademyAwards, so why knock it so hard? It's meant to entertain for 90minutes, and it does just that.

bb_bryson (15 May 2012)

An uninspired movie

Having just watched this movie, I can see that it fails on a number ofgrounds. First criminal versus the police department idea. There are somany movies that have the local police department square off against aserial killer and most of them are better than this. Not only does hismission barely get started, but he kills people we don't know or careabout. I never felt any tension in the scenes here and it was justboring.Which brings me to one problem with this movie: the "bad guy." Thismovies requires a criminal who is exceptionally smart or talented withstrategy. "Mechanic" was better, because it always seemed like he was 3steps ahead of the police. Here a random guy who got brutalized byBrant played by Jason Stathom (can I call him the protagonist...becauseif not him then who?) and so tries to kill a bunch of police officersfor revenge. It never felt the cat and mouse story because theprotagonist and antagonist were not clever enough nor was theantagonist that interesting. I will say, though, that I trulysympathized with what happened to him as a result of Stathom's actions,and I hoped that this would lead to some character arc for theprotagonist, which would at least give some growth to theone-dimensional characters. The final scene was uninspired and thedirector forgot one thing, WE NEED THE PROTAGONIST TO HAVE A CHANCE OFLOSING. The final fight is just Brant beating up and executing the badguy. Even the final moments of the killer following Brant lacked allsense of tension or emotion. I was just waiting for this movie to end.Which brings me to the biggest problem - Brant. What a jerk! Of coursethe protagonist of a movie doesn't have to be a goodie goodie, but ifthey do have a darker side, it needs to be fleshed out, and explainedso the audience can relate. I love Godfather, Apocalypse Now, BladeRunner, and others where the protagonist does terrible things, but wecan still root for them. At what point are we supposed to identify withthis guy? And if we cannot identify with him, how can we sympathizewith him and thus care about him? If we don't like him in the slightestthen we don't care who wins at the end. Hell, even Training Day had uscare about Denzel Washington, and he wasn't even the protagonist! Sounless you are a person who loves police brutality, you will justcringe during the "action scenes" and be thinking "why the HELL hasn'the been arrested himself, or at the very least been fired???" Seriouslywe hear a little bit about him needing to 'take it easy' at thebeginning of the film, and then that's about it. Not only does thismovie have no character progression, but at the end, the guy is thesame jerk he always was. He doesn't show regret, growth or change.As for his bromance with the Nash, it just seemed contrived. Never didI feel like they should be friends. Brant lobs insults at this guy, andthe guy laughs it off. WAIT. He told us that all the jibes he got fromhis co-workers caused him to burn-out and now he becomes friends with aguy who is continuing it? How does that make sense? Seriously, whywould that guy have anything to do with Brant. Yeah well Brant says "Irespect you" a few times, I guess to make him seem more 2-dimensional(I meant that in a positive way). But we never know WHY he "respects"him. In the end, the film doesn't spend enough time on their friendshipfor it to seem real. You want to see a better example of two men hatingeach other and then slowly respecting each other - I recommend "As goodas it gets" or even "Lethal Weapon."The supporting cast was okay. I'm sure Falls' story thread was to haveBrant show her compassion and seem more well-rounded. But after thatscene he is telling the bad guy he doesn't regret what he has done tohim nor care. I didn't care about the gang kid because I didn't knowwho he was except for some racist brat that beat up (and perhapskilled) some guy and didn't want to face the consequences. And as forFalls, her motivations were unclear too. The police chief was acardboard cutout. I guess the most human character was Nash (the gayguy), but only because of the few moments of humanity and exposition wegot from him. Anyways, he was barely in this movie and Nash givingBrant the gun at the end seemed ridiculous. So now he is an accessoryto murder?What messages do we get from this film? Homophobia is okay, in fact itmakes you manly. The fact that Stathom keeps bringing it up that Nashis gay, makes me wonder if Stathom's character was in the closethimself and is struggling with gay urges and beats the crap out ofsuspects because he cannot handle those feelings. ...what else?Violence and police brutality are okay. Real police don't need searchwarrants, they can steal, assault whomever they like, brutalizesuspects, etc. Also, if the justice system doesn't work because itcares too much about the rights of the citizenry, then kill the suspectyourself. I was waiting for Brant to either grow up, regret hisactions, seem like a real person or face the consequences of hisactions. But sadly none of that came.In the end, I wasn't looking for Shakespeare here, but the film missesa few important points. a) Give the audience something to like aboutthe protagonist so we root for him to win and we care about him and b)make the antagonist clever enough to almost bring the police to theirknees.

falipeysuperman (14 May 2012)

Learn from my mistake

To put it into context, I have been using IMDb for about 8 years butthis is the first time I have felt so passionately about a film that Ihave created an account and written this review so that others maylearn from my mistake and avoid this terrible terrible film.Jason Statham takes another turn as whispering hardman, this time as apolice detective. Although he does no detective work whatsoeverthroughout the film and is beaten at every turn by Aiden Gilliens'Blitz' cop killer. Aiden who I am sure was trying to borrow hisperformance from Gary Oldmans character in Leon came across more of acrack head retard than dangerous killer.The plot in this film is ridiculous and is still introducing newcharacters well into an hour of the film when it needs to focus ondeveloping the high number of characters it already has in the film.There is no motivation behind any of the cop killings which would beconsistent with any serial killer... ever. I don't want to spoilanything (if its even possible, it would be like spoiling a turd) butthe reason given for the killings is nonsense.The directing, music and acting in this film is terrible but the realkicker and absolute gem in this film is the script writing whichappears to be ripped off any third class gangster film from thebeginning of time or from any other Jason Statham crapathon. This ishonestly worse than a children's TV programme, I have seen deeper andmore meaningful episodes of 'come dine with me'.The entire audience shared this complete lack of effort with the samedespise as I did, bemoaning the entire experience of this.I had really wanted to support this as an English film but JasonStatham has f*cked us again. For every Kings Speech and Harry Brown wemanage to make, 6 of these dynamite sticks of d*ck come out. I wouldactually rather have watched Michael Caine dumping a number 2 for anhour which would have been more interesting than what Elliot Lester hassqueezed out.Please please please, learn from my mistake and do not watch this. Itsnot about the tenner you will save from the cinema, or the fiver fromthe Chinese man. Its about the time you will save with your life,please do not watch this and please do not support Jason Stathamanymore. Lets give him to America and keep him out of our films, whilewe are at it, keep Elliot Lester out too.

aadc1 (13 May 2012)

Surprisingly good police story and solid actors

Surprisingly good police story and solid actors, rating 8 Jason Statham(Best movies: Crank, Transporter 3) did here a good job, even if hedeviated from his usual acting. In this movie he plays a solid seriousthough policeman. He fights less sophisticated (with no martial artselements), but not less effective. ;-) On the other side the bad guyAidan Gillen was the real surprise. Really a bad guy. Most peopleforget that the bad guy in the movie is the same important as the goodguy. Otherwise there is a lack of balance.At the beginning you get the impression that the movie will be lame,but the story evolves in timely well-coordinated steps.The English once again proof that they are less stylish than theAmericans (sometimes the images give me nausea, as they are sodesolate), but have to offer very well thought out stories, where everystory line has its purpose and ends up logically.

(13 May 2012)

Typical Jason Statham Film

This review is from: Blitz (Amazon Instant Video) If you have seen one of his films than you have seen them all....Fortunately they don't get old. This was an exciting flick and definitely worth checking out.

(13 May 2012)

Full On Retro Cop Rumble, Kick Ass - No Apologies

A throwback to the hardcore 70's crime drama. Street level thugs and street level cops - neither of whom are playing by the rules. This fantastic retro vibe is recreated in 'Blitz'. It's a difficult style to film and I've seen it done with this level of excellence in just a handful of movies, the Mel Gibson film 'Payback' being one.Muted colors and harshly lit scenes are a true flashback to movies like 'The Enforcer' - a grisly look down into the ugliness of dark alleyways and dingy backrooms. No beautiful runway model crime scene investigators, no rock-n-roll themed music, no happy family waiting at home. Whiskey, harsh flourescents and a couch are all that await you - the job is everything because you have nothing else.Boiled down, 'Blitz' is an ol' fashioned good cop/bad cop dynamic. Jason Statham's brutal street cop, Detective Brant pushed to work with Luke Evans' gay by-the-book office cop, Detective Inspector Stokes. Extreme polar opposites who recognize that they need the other's divergent skillset, forcing them to put aside their differences in order to catch a psychotic thrill killer. Part of the fun is watching them warily test one another, the slow recognition that each is a good cop in his own way. Finally, that bonding of partners that will cement them as buddies over the course of events.Finally, I would like to praise Aiden Gillen. He seems to be one of those actors that can only portray nutters - it's something in his eyes, that weird glint, that touch of madness. I have doubts that he can play 'normal'. But I give him props for doing crazy well; it can be a career maker for some. I'm still hopeful he'll be able to break out of the pigeon-hole, e.g. Dennis Hopper or Malcolm McDowell, and eventually get to work on straight roles, because I really enjoy his performances.My only complaint is the police officer character played by Zawe Ashton. On one hand I sort of got it. But on the other, her character seemed like it was written for a more integral purpose in the original draft of the script, but later revisions/edits moved beyond and she was left behind. Or worse, because her plot line was in the source novel, the filmmakers decided they 'had' to include it for the movie. Unfortunately, her excellent and sincere portrayal felt misplaced and oddly unfinished in the film. I think 'Blitz' would've been a tighter project without the extraneous drama and pointless drug fueled sub-plot.Flat out fun if you're into these kinds of retro cop rumbles. And to be blunt, I want more of this from Statham = Kick ass, no apologies. Jason's the top action hero in the movies today and I hope to see more like this from the man. Especially from UK productions where there seems to be a harder edge to his work, it's an energy his more processed US productions don't always capture.

Jin Maruhashi (10 May 2012)

Moderately exciting violence

"Blitz" delivers a bone-crunching chain of heavy action sequences thatwill assuredly send chills of sheer fright down our spines. Sadly, theother components of this film are unable to match the nauseatinglythrilling quarrels that save it from being wounded by a nearly fatalbullet of tedium. Unmasking the culprit behind the series of murderswithin fifteen minutes sentences the remainder of the film to an alltoo foreseeable path crackling with reckless spine-snapping maneuversand frenzied skull-crushing action. This kind of continuation may stillappeal to many bloodthirsty viewers but may disappoint those who wereexpecting a clean, balanced mesh between suspense and violence.Nonetheless, it is safe to assume that both of these types of viewerswill certainly concur that Jason Statham is an entertaining watch inany action film and that Aidan Gillen stars perfectly as the dementedserial killer. Overall, "Blitz" launches a fusillade of intense actionsequences that sadly friendly fires upon its story's suspense, anessential casualty that could have provided a far greater degree ofenthrallment.

Dominic Radcliffe (10 May 2012)

It's all been seen before and will be seen again, and again.

bob the moo (06 May 2012)

Solid but lacks real impact and benefits greatly from the stars involved

Brant is a no nonsense copper. Frequently in trouble for violentconduct, he drinks hard, smokes where he likes and can't operate acomputer and sees typing to be like cooking – women's work. He ispretty much on his last chance whenever someone start killing policeofficers. The killers calls himself Blitz and informs a journalist thathe intends to kill 8 more officers; meanwhile Brant joins his boss Nashto try and catch the killer before he strikes again.Bit of an odd film this; it sort of does enough to be entertaining butat the same time it seems to want to pull in a direction that doesn'treally fit the material, while also rather fudging the darker dramathat it also could have been. The end result is a bit of a muddle butit is solid enough to get by. The film starts with Brant taking on someyobs and then is followed by a scene of him being tough in the face ofthe department doctor – so far, so much to be expected. Unfortunatelyfor the film, the rest of the plot doesn't really lend itself to thissort of cop – he feels like he would be more at home in more of anaction movie. So when Brant is around the film is a little bit cheekyand a little bit tough, but otherwise it keeps taking odd paths. So forexample the entire thread with Falls seems wasted – her drug use, herrelationship, none of it seems to fit into the rest of the film.This rather muddled feel also leads to the film not quite delivering inany specific way. It feels like it should be a tough-talking actionmovie, but yet it never becomes one. It feels like there arecharacter-driven aspects to be had, but yet you never get to the heartof anything. It sort of does a bit of all of this well enough to get by– but this is what it is doing, getting by. The actors help it greatly,even if their presence may also have guiding the film down certainroads. I think this specifically about Statham who is a strength to thefilm while also being a possible factor for the confused approach. Hedoes "Stratham" and does it well and kudos for a guy getting Hollywoodmoney to be coming back to the UK to make movies. He is a real presencein the film but too much of it seems geared towards his performancewhen it should have gone other ways – he is still good, but he shouldhave gone with the film, not the other way around. Considine must havesigned on to a different script, because he literally does nothing here– such a great actor and he has a role that has so little to it thatanyone could have done it. Gillen also seems to have a lack of material– he is OK but the film never lets him be more than who he is the firsttime we see him. Ashton is good as her struggling addict, but the filmdoes nothing with her so her hard work is wasted. Morrissey has littleto do – again I presume the script that he signed to was moreintelligent that it turned out to be in the final version? Blitz is anOK film because the main plot is solid enough and Statham is grizzlyenough to keep things going. However there is a lot of wasted potentialhere in the actors and in the various plot threads – it feels like theyhad more than just a basic police thriller in their script, made abetter but more complex film but then ended up cutting it back to be afilm that would appeal more to those coming to see a "Jason Stathamfilm", even though bits of the previous film were still includedwhether they worked or not. Solid enough to fill the time, butsomewhere in that editing room there is a much better film than thisone.

Saad Khan (06 May 2012)

Good time-pass

Blitz – CATCH IT (B) I'm not a huge fan of Jason Statham and I foundall of his movies kind of same. I bet if I mix and mash scenes of fromhis different movies no one can ever guess which movie this scene isfrom. Compare to all of his action movies, blitz is different inregards of story. As it's more of a thriller than an action movie.Blitz is a story of a psycho killer who is killing police officers.Jason Statham, Paddy Considine, Zawe Ashton, Luke Evans and AidenGillen are perfect in their roles. Zawe Ashton is hot as drug addictpolice office. Luke Evens is always refreshing to watch. I had goodtime watching it. Overall, good time pass thriller.

(05 May 2012)

Revenge flick with an old school feel

Blitz was a very entertaining film and had an old school feel to it very much like an old Charles Bronson revenge flick but with a fresh take.Jason Statham plays 'Brant' a bad a** cop with not many if any limits when executing justice and he teams up with Paddy Considine 'Nash' who is a gay cop who has somewhat of a sordid past.The two get on well together after the gay ice is broken.They of course have to throw in a couple of cracks about Nash's sexuality such as phoofer and pillow biter.Once the ice is broken and trust established between Nash and Brant the gay thing doesn't come back up and he's treated as he should be ,a good cop,thankfully.They are on the trail of a brutal cop killer and there are a few surprises thrown in along the way.I really liked it and thought the ensemble cast was excellent.The villain is a particularly dislikeable character and you will be glad you're on the hunt 'via this movie' with the detectives. Somewhat your typical Statham fare but much more interesting than some. two thumbs up.

dumbass-738-639380 (04 May 2012)

Disappointing

I'll start with what I expected from this movie. I expected to see alot of Jason Statham beating the living hell out of witnesses,criminals and what not to get to this "cop killer", while the killercraftily keeps slaying police officers one by one. Instead I got a stray of cliché and truly lame one liners from Statham,which often didn't even make sense and at times were slightly humorous,I saw him pointlessly beat up a bunch of kids and pinch a guy. I don'teven see the point for him to be in the movie, since the main characterin my opinion was the criminal, played by Aidan Gillen.There were 3 motives in the plot - Statham, though rough, truly being agood guy, Statham working with this 'special' officer and theirevolving friendship and this sick psycho schizophrenic cop killingmaniac and his story. Every single one of them was left unfinished andkept jumping in between. I did however very much enjoy the performancesof Paddy Considine and Aiden Gillen. They played very complex andinteresting characters, and I believe Aiden Gillen truly deserves to berecognised after this movie, for, in my opinion, he was a better psychothan The Joker from Dark Knight.Overall, the movie is worth seeing, but I wouldn't expect much of it(especially if you are a Statham buff, or a fan of witty plots)

moviexclusive (04 May 2012)

Good cast performances can't save a half-baked cop thriller that tries to mask its weaknesses with cruel violence

Jason Statham could quite possibly be the most hardworking action stararound today, lending his iconic form and trademark gruffness to justabout every B-action movie aspiring to be something respectable. Hislatest 'Blitz' is no different- while it tries to be a gritty hard-hitting thriller, it is still no more than a B-movie about a toughdetective who is roped in to track down a vicious serial cop killer.But as with other such genre flicks like 'The Mechanic', 'Crank', and'The Transporter', Statham is the very reason that it works.Here, Statham plays the grizzled London copper Tom Brant, who plays byhis own rules, and can't quite be bothered by what his superiors thinksof his methods- imagine the British version of Dirty Harry, and you'llget the idea. To emphasise the kind of cop Brant is supposed to be,director Elliot Lester trots out the usual clichés- drinking whiskey inthe morning; smacking his suspects with a hurley in the kneecap; andspewing F-words in almost every sentence. Such simplicity used to bethe stuff of 80s and 90s cop thrillers, but Lester doesn't bother aboutthe apparent anachronism. Brant is paired with a new superior who's openly gay, and thesubsequent interaction between the pair- especially a scene that seesBrant spending the night over at the latter's place- is one of the morerefreshing elements in the film. There is good rapport between Stathamand Paddy Considine (who plays said detective Porter Nash), andwatching Statham hurl his typical tough-guy homophobic insults atConsidine is great fun. In fact, it is perhaps more interesting thanwatching Statham go about apprehending the mass cop murderer callinghimself The Blitz. Aidan Gillen is the brazen psycho, and having honed his villainousskills in '12 Rounds', delivers a gleefully over-the-top performancethat gives the movie a thrilling edge. But the film bungles thecat-and- mouse game between Statham and Gillen, especially inconvincing why Statham would suspect the latter to be the killer. Theglaring plot holes do no favours for the film, as does its poorcharacterisation- one of them in the form of a tabloid hack (DavidMorrissey) engaged by The Blitz to be his middleman with the cops. Morrissey's thankless role has a companion in a young policewoman (ZaweAshton) with a drug problem who gets embroiled with The Blitz. Boththese characters pad out the film's running time, and make it slackerthan it should be. The fault lies with Nathan Parker's script, hissophomore effort after the critically praised 'Moon'. In adapting KenBruen's novel (who is also the author of 'London Boulevard'), Parkercan't quite pare the details down to a lean mean police procedural,instead allowing too many characters to spend time up on the screen forlonger than they should. His director Lester is just as guilty,responsible for the odd tonal shifts in the movie that can't quiteconnect the dots from one part of the puzzle to another for itsaudience very well. That the film manages to differentiate itself from the regular B-moviefare is thanks to Statham's raw charisma, who plays the brusque hard-worn detective right down to a T- even though his tough-guy shtick doesadmittedly lose its novelty after similar roles in previous movies.It's a pity then that Statham isn't in a better movie, for despite theviolence, this remains a standard-issue cop thriller that isn'tparticularly compelling. With hardly any character development, and a villain you know rightfrom the start, it's just a matter of waiting for Statham to catch upwith Gillen- and even that final denouement lacks the gratificationwe'd been expecting. For Statham fans, this is hardly the guiltypleasure of 'Crank' and 'Transporter'- perhaps the only consolationthen is that Statham's next movie, 'Killer Elite', beside Clive Owenand Robert DeNiro is already on its way.- www.moviexclusive.com

siderite (03 May 2012)

A Jason Statham realistic movie, for once

I have mixed feelings about this movie. First of all, the story is totally believable, with the brutish Britishpolicemen trying to survive in a legal and mediatic world, the stupidsmall minded crooks that survive just fine because they don't have tofollow rules and the whole non-sense of this situation. I liked that.The main character, though, was really hard to like. His methods arebrutal and seem effective at first, until, through his pushing peopleto the edge, Statham's character all but causes the loss of life ofsome of his colleagues. He is completely unapologetic afterwards, whichreally annoyed me. The homosexual sidekick seemed to exist for the sole purpose of givingsome legitimacy to the bully cop, although he did provide some insightin the world the movie describes and the internal motivation of cops.Aidan Gillen is his extroverted, brilliant self and I am starting toenjoy every movie he plays in, even if in this film he is apsychopathic cop killer with no real plan than a pointless revengeagainst people who arrested him in the past.Bottom line: The ending is ironic, but I saw it coming a mile away. Thefilm is not the usual Statham action film, instead it is a rathersubtle critique on the British law enforcement environment. It has itsups and downs and, if you don't care about the underlying moral of thestory, the film might seem a boring TV cop movie.