Jason Statham is a cop with temper trouble who is teamed with a transferred officer (Paddy Considine) who was a victim of homophobia in finding a cop killer. David Morrissey is a journalist who is given leads from both the killer and Statham’s snitch. Meanwhile a female cop is post-rehab and is dealing with a youth who has ended up involved in gang violence.
Blitz has at least two failings. One being an overall televisual look (a rather ensemble piece, it is like a big screen episode of “The Bill” or a self-contained pilot for a ‘dirty cop’ series), although once it is broadcast on television, the argument could be made that it looks cinematic. It would probably better in an independent cinema as opposed to a mainstream multiplex. Or maybe I have not seen enough cop-related movies. However, “Hot Fuzz” – a pastiche and send-up of Hollywood action films – managed to look cinematic. The other failing is that at no point does Statham take off his shirt (perhaps the Kermodean litmus test of a Statham film). It also plays more as a thriller than as an action film with few action scenes for Statham to go through – namely confronting some youths in the opening, chasing a suspected cop-killer, and a final confrontation at the end. At least one scene of poignant interest is the media coverage of the first murder – a young female cop is shot point blank and reported as “dying instantly”, but we see her gasping until death.
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