Review: Blitz

A serial killer calling himself ‘Blitz’ (Aidan Gillen) is targeting South London cops, and hard-arse Detective Sergeant Brant (Jason Statham) vows to track the demented, but cunning and wily killer down. Brant breaks rules to get the job done, but for this case the macho cop has to deal with the new, openly gay Detective Inspector Porter Nash (Paddy Considine), who is far more by-the-book. David Morrissey plays a hack journo who gets caught up in things, whilst Zawe Ashton plays a young WPC with past drug issues and connections with young street hooligans from the seedy side of town.

 

If you think the idea of Jason Statham making like a Brit “Dirty Harry” sounds like fun, think again, because this 2011 Elliott Lester (only his second feature to date) film isn’t the brooding, kick-arse urban crime flick you want it to be. For once, I don’t actually blame Lionsgate (infamous for their shitty treatment of some genuinely enjoyable films like “Blood Creek”) for keeping this one quiet, it’s awfully low-key, meandering, and mostly dull.

 

There’s a “Harry Brown”-esque subplot involving young hooligans and a junkie WPC (Zawe Ashton, who seems to know all there is to know about “The Crying Game”) that eats up way too much screen time for something that has so little connection to the main thrust of the film, and which is so incredibly uninteresting. I really don’t know why screenwriter Nathan Parker (“Moon”) has focused so much on this story, though perhaps he is just faithfully adapting from the Ken Bruen novel. It seemed more fitting of TV’s “The Bill” to me, however. Ashton’s terribly amateurish performance (not even at a TV soap standard) certainly doesn’t help matters, and the film grinds to a skull-crushingly boring halt every time this side-story is dealt with. It also has the film running way too long and with no energy at all, the finale is especially sluggish. Was there an editor in employ on this project?

 

At first, I thought Jason Statham was going to be perfectly cast here as the vigilante cop, particularly after a “Death Wish”-style opening scene where Statham seemed to be in a less charitable mood than even Harry Callahan. Unfortunately, because Lester’s approach is more drama than action/thriller, Statham’s entertainingly tough performance seems an ill-fit, ultimately. His performance belongs in “Crank 3”, not this, and an actor capable of more depth was perhaps needed for the part (Clive Owen, maybe?).

 

The film is not a total loss, however, thanks to the performances of Paddy Considine and especially Aidan Gillen. I’m not a Considine fan in the slightest, but cast as a gay copper, he provides an amusingly straight-laced (if you’ll pardon the pun) counterpart to Statham’s blokey, uber-macho rule-breaker. Gillen, who provided unmemorable villainy in “12 Rounds” but enjoyable ambiguity on “Game of Thrones”, is a revelation here. Creepy as hell and borderline pathetic, his blend of Gary Oldman (but more subtle) and Tommy Lee Jones brand of villainy belongs in a much better film. It’s a shame that this film isn’t much good, because Gillen’s stellar work deserves an audience. Cast in a bit part as a WPC who flirts with Statham for a scene or two, the underrated Christina Cole once again shows that she ought to be seen more often and in bigger roles. She has ‘it’ in spades and is beautiful to boot. Less attractive by far is the film’s look. I must call out cinematographer Rob Hardy here for providing us with what surely must be the brownest movie ever made. It’s muddy, monochromatic, and with a slight made-in-Bolivia vibe about it (I’m sure it wasn’t, though).

 

With its extraneous subplots, agonisingly slow pace and exaggerated length, this cop-killer film isn’t anywhere near as good as it should be. Gillen’s performance is tops, though.

 

Rating: C