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REVIEWS
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Review: 'Welcome To The Punch' Is A Stylish &Smart British Spin In On The Action-Thriller
The terms "British cinema" and "action movie" tend not to go together particularly well. Maybe it's the smaller budgets
at play, maybe it's an awareness that our American and Asian cousins do it better, maybe it's cultural -- most British
cops don't carry weapons, for example. It's not that it hasn't been tried, it's more that the examples we do have -- "The
51st State," "Centurion," "The Sweeney" -- tend to be bad enough to dissuade too many others from giving it a
shot, and so the idea of an action movie set in the U.K. remains incongruous enough that it can form the central joke of
an entire film, like Edgar Wright's "Hot Fuzz."
But that might all be about to change, thanks to "Welcome To The Punch." Produced by Ridley Scott, marking
the second film from Eran Creevy (who was behind the excellent and underrated "Shifty") and featuring a top-notch
cast of Britain's finest, it's an atypically glossy and ambitious take on the U.K. crime flick. And it's one that works far
better than it has any right to, cementing Creevy as someone who's likely to follow people like Christopher Nolan
and Rupert Wyatt into the big time any day now.
When the film opens, career criminal Jacob Sternwood (Mark Strong) and his right-hand man Roy (Peter Mullan)
are pulling off a heist, the one that'll allow them to retire. Dogged cop Max Lewinsky (James McAvoy
tail, and almost gets the best of Sternwood, but ends up without his man, who flees to exile in Iceland, leaving Max
with a bullet in his kneecap for the trouble. Years later, with a political debate looming about a proposal to arm more
of the police, Sternwood's son (Elyes Gabel) is found by the police at the airport, near dead from a bullet wound.
Max, whose career has hit the skids after his injury, along with partner Sarah (Andrea Riseborough
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Thomas Geiger (David Morrissey), suspect that
Sternwood will come back to the country for his offspring,
and they'll finally see their chance to nab him. But things
turn out to be much, much more complicated than that.
From the opening frames -- a nifty credits sequence,
which blends seamlessly and cannily into the opening
heist, all accompanied by Harry Escott's excellent Hans
Zimmer-esque score -- it's clear that "Welcome To The
Punch" is a work of almost preternatural confidence.
Throwing you right into the plot without messing around,
Creevy and DoP Ed Wild (who's going to get a lot of work
off this) shoot London like Roger Deakins shot "Skyfall" in Shanghai -- neon-flecked, high-contrast, and absolutely
gorgeously. And the opening chase scene, while brief, is thrilling, tautly putting clarity above everything else.
And this sets the tone pretty well for what follows. The
film moves like a rocket, Creevy laying out his engagingly
complex plot in a lean 100 minutes that aren't boring for
even a second. It's beautiful throughout, with the
filmmaker showing he has an impressive eye, and the
action sequences -- mostly gunfights to one degree or
another, and influenced principally by Asian action
cinema -- are well choreographed, aesthetically pleasing,
and properly exciting.
Perhaps crucially, while it's somewhat stylized, 'Punch'
keeps a toe in the real world, and it even feels plausible
that it could be taking place in Britain (in fact, there's a smart, wry dichotomy in the way that it's a gun-toting actioner
where *minor spoiler* the villains' plot involves getting more guns onto the street). And this is indicative of the film
in general -- it's never simply dumb action for the sake of action. While Creevy has namechecked Tony Scott and
John Woo as influences, you can also feel the DNA of Michael Mann, and of '70s political thrillers, in the mix. And
yet it also manages to stop short of becoming a slave to those inspirations.
Something has to give, inevitably, and in this case it's the
amount of time given to the characters. Most are written
with just enough of a twist to make them more than
archetypes, and the cast are unsurprisingly strong.
McAvoy's wounded, prideful copper, Riseborough as his
accomplished, self-assured partner, Strong's
unsurprisingly effective screen presence as the hyper-
accomplished thief with a code, and Morrissey's morally
nebulous chief are all solid, with Mullan's wry and loyal
right-hand man and Johnny Harris ("Snow White &
The Huntsman") as a genuinely fearsome gun-for-hire
being particular standouts.
But while Creevy can be effective at sketching out a lot with a little (you know everything you need to about the
relationship between Max and Sarah with only a couple of lingering glances), you can't help but wish that it was bit
less minimalist in places. Strong's character in particular remains a bit of an enigma, and Riseborough gets short shrift
in terms of the screentime; they could each have done with another scene or two to round them out. Especially as
Creevy's scenes tend to be so potent. There's a number of very good set pieces, from a desperate gunfight in a bar to a
tense confrontation featuring a great cameo from "Another Year" star Ruth Sheen.
There are a couple of other smaller complaints. In places,
especially early on, the dialogue can be a touch clunky or
cliched, and the ending feels a touch abrupt, if only
because you've been enjoying what's come before so
much. But they are ultimately minimal issues. For most of
the run-time, "Welcome To The Punch" is thrillingly
cinematic, beautifully made, smarter and funnier than
you'd expect, and a phenomenal showcase for Creevy and
his team. See it now, so you can bore everyone else with
how you were there first when Creevy is off making $200
million blockbusters. [B+]
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REPLY
"Welcome To The Punch" opens in the UK on Friday, March 15th and hits U.S. theaters on Wednesday March 27th. It
will be available on VOD starting March 30th.
MORE: Review, Welcome To The Punch, James McAvoy, Eran Creevy, Mark Strong, Peter Mullan,
Andrea Riseborough, David Morrissey, Daniel Kaluuya, Johnny Harris
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2 Comments
JAMES | MARCH 22, 2013 7:28 AM
This film is f*cking abysmal. A misfire on every level. Shame as Creevy's last film was very confidently done. But
this... the story, script, acting, and especially directing was frankly incompetent. Thin, cliched characters, risible
dialogue and plotting, no story to speak of. It felt like he had done no research for the script - apart from second
grade action films - and there was no specificity to anything, no sense of reality, or place. It felt like there were
about 10 people in the whole world of the film, who kept bumping into each other and explaining the ridiculous plot
to one another. David Morrissey? Come on mate. Awful performance. McAvoy? Terrible. Even Strong. Pfffft. A real
disappointment. Just because Creevy made a good micro-budget film doesn not mean he knows what to do with
£10m.
WILLIAM | MARCH 12, 2013 6:32 AM
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"Dogged cop Max Lewinsky (James McAvoy) is hot on their tail, and almost gets the best of Sternwood, but ends
up without his man, who flees to exile in Iceland with a bullet in his kneecap for the trouble...Max, whose career has
hit the skids after his injury"
The first sentence makes it sound like Sternwood is injured and flees to Iceland, so what injury does Max have?
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