Brant (Statham) is a grizzled cop who will do whatever it takes to get an arrest. So long as ‘whatever it takes’ involves a little brutality and some public intoxication.
But now someone has started killing cops and bragging about it to the media. Worse still, he’s dubbed himself Blitz. Still, better than ‘Brant’…
In these circumstances even grizzled cop loners must look for help, in this case Brant seeks teams up with Porter Nash (Paddy Consodine), the new local police chief and an openly gay man – which apparently is bad here as Brant references it derisively at every opportunity.
With Statham typically stoic, grim faced and Stathamesque, the task of enlivening the film falls upon Blitz (Aidan Gillen), who at least seems willing to take the challenge. Blitz is as brazen, loud and audacious as Brant isn’t, he matches Brant’s violent tendencies and raises him with a pervading sense of lunacy and disillusionment.
Like the Steven Seagal film Out for Justice the two proponents wander about the same area not running into each other, even though neither seem to be actively trying to hide or even lay low. There is also some amazingly bad police work that contributes to the inability to apprehend the bad guy, and for no known reason a subplot involving a female cop and a young troublemaker that goes absolutely nowhere.
Unfortunately unlike Out for Justice the problems don’t end when Brant and Blitz finally meet. You can’t replace Seagal’s knack for action with furrowed brows and a set jaw – even if the jaw and brows belong to Stat.
There’s a growing groundswell of opinion that feels Statham’s films are starting to look very much the same. This film will do nothing to alter that mindset, such is its unwillingness to try new things or separate itself from the herd.
Blitz has moments of uninspired violence, a better than usual performance from Statham, a valiant effort from Gillen and a touch of class from Considine. It suffers from a clumsy handling of misguided homophobia, a terrible soundtrack and the aforementioned unnecessary subplot.
None of these things will stop action fans from watching, nor critics decrying the awfulness from afar. They’re just closer to the mark than usual this time.
Final Rating – 6 / 10. Even bad Statham is still some Statham. Though he endangers our forgiving nature and makes those critics look a little more accurate with every increasingly drab tale lately.
