Blitz

Introduction

It seems at the moment that nary a month goes by without another Statham vehicle being released. Statham appears to be this decade's action hero of choice at the moment, but a prolific career will inevitably include some duds. Moving slightly away from his US market, Statham's latest film is a definite English film rather than his more usual European efforts.

Statham stars as Brant, a jaded detective with an attitude problem and prone to violent outbursts. He works in the notorious South East Division where all his fellow coppers, up to and including the Chief Super, are all hard men with attitudes that went out with the dinosaurs. Brant's problem is that some tooled up chav, Barry Weiss (Aiden Gillan), is knocking off cops from Brant's station and taunting them under his chosen pseudonym of Blitz ("as in Blitzkrieg, yeah?").

The Chief Inspector who would be leading this investigation is off on compassionate leave due to his wife dying recently, so the Chief Super brings in Sergeant Porter Nash (Paddy Considine) and temporarily promotes him.  This being despite the fact that Nash is an admitted "pillow biter" and that such things don't go down well within the testosterone fuelled environment of the South East Division.

Brant and Nash team up to bring Blitz to justice as the body count rises...

Extras

Just some deleted scenes.

Overall

This is just dire. I'm not a Statham fan by any means but some of his films have bordered well into the realms of acceptable or even good. Blitz just has no redeeming features to it at all. I'm pretty sure that this will be marketed as a 'gritty English thriller' but really it should just be billed as 's***e'. This wouldn't even be good enough to merit a one-off TV show, although I suspect that some Eastenders writer is behind this as it showcases a truly depressing picture of London. The only saving grace for fans of Statham is that it's not really his fault.

The acting from Staham's co-stars is dire, despite some good actors in there. Paddy Considine and David Morrisey are wasted, and honestly I can't believe that they were persuaded that Blitz was a useful use of their time, although both are criminally under utilised. Instead I just have to ask, what on earth have they got on you both? Gillen is another dependable actor who could have put in a better performance but instead is forced to mince his way through a psychotic performance that looks more childish than menacing.

Far too many plot holes and inconsistencies, including a rather bizarre subplot about a WPC back on the Force after being in drug rehab and falling off her wagon. There's very little point in this at all, it wouldn't have affected anything and just seems totally out of place. Mind you, there's a distinct lack of understanding of the Police and Police procedure in this film, which is where the earlier comment about Eastenders comes from. I have rarely come across a more blatant example of a writer who clearly knows nothing about the modern Police Force (sorry, Service...) and the shocking lack of technical expertise from Brant's character is even more bizarre. Here's what is supposedly a detective of many years but has to get a WPC to click on hyperlinks to get more information on a criminal record. So, they're all thick and misogynistic with only Considine's character with an inkling of intelligence.

I doubt any of the above will worry the average Statham fan but I really couldn't wait for this one to finish...