Blitz (2011)

Okay... so my expectations weren't high going in to see Blitz. It was more an act of supporting British Crime cinema than supporting the act of British crimes of cinema and recent things I'd seen written about it were not horrible. What I'm trying to say is that I was convinced it would be mulch, I would have waited for the DVD. But even though it's 2011 and the idea of Statham, Paddy Considine, Aiden Gillen and David Morrissey all together isn't the exciting prospect, it would have been say... 5years ago- it's a strong team of British actors.
I guess the relatively good news is it's not bad enough to be offended by but it's not the British-Dirty Harry that it's trying hard to be, either. Basically, it politely meets your expectations for a drink, makes smalltalk, shakes your hand before you go your separate ways. The Stath does his Cockney SKULK-Smash thing, Considine does the reflective and measured cop-routine you may have seen in the Red Riding Trilogy and Gillen does the killer mentalist bit, you may have seen in John Cena-WWE Wrestling vehicle, 12 Rounds. I'm throwing around these contributions but they're playing to their strengths... we'll not Considine- i like him when he plays stupid or crazy too.
Like I say, this tale of a cat and mouse game played between cops and cop-killer is pretty by-the-numbers but it's not boring and it's certainly not convoluted. They've tried to make an 'R' rated police procedural, for and by the British and they've succeeded in taking the necessary elements from America and dressed South London locations and speech around them; you can tell it's written by a British not a Yank paraphrasing that accent.
What will say is that all these guys talk in soundbites and aforisms. I was in a fit of giggles when during a car chase, Considine says 'Head 'im off at the underpass...' (*bang* "I hate that cliche!!")
In fact, if you're in the mood to let kind of shit slide then go forth but otherwise it'll grate on you real quick. And maybe Gillen's cartoony human-monster is writ a bit too large but i liked it; he gets the balance of evil narcissist and panto villain, just right and my favourite concept about serial killers is the moment when they realise they become pop-icons and how they use that and Blitz plays a lil on that.
So Blitz is dumb and shallow and everyone involved should be using their time on better projects and in some cases, we've already seen these actors play these characters before but then, maybe that's why we bought the ticket... for a safe, undemanding 100mins.

I watched Blitz (2011) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Cracks (2009)...