THE PLOT Jason Statham is Detective Sergeant Tom Brant, a grizzled South London cop on the hunt for a serial cop killer known as The Blitz. Brant must stop this publicity hungry killer before more colleagues and friends are gunned down.
THE REVIEW I was somewhat pleasantly surprised to find this wasn’t the usual Statham fair of fast paced over-the-top action and explosions. That said this wasn’t a great film, as anticipated, but still managed to be entertaining and ultimately a good watch.
Aidan Gillen (Queer As Folk, Game Of Thrones) is fantastic as the psychotic murderer Barry Weiss (a.k.a. The Blitz) and holds a significant screen presence in the title role. Paddy Considine’s supporting character Porter Nash, whilst performed well, was a largely under-developed and ultimately unimportant one.
Whilst this film did bear some of the hallmarks Statham fans expect, The Blitz was largely grit over flair which fundamentally worked without being bang-on-the-money.
THE VERDICT Gritty, well-paced and mainly entertaining, The Blitz is an average film made better by some good casting and acting. TC
Director: Elliott Lester Writers: Ken Bruen (novel), Nathan Parker (screenplay) Stars: Jason Statham, Paddy Considine, Zawe Ashton and Aidan Gillen Running Time: 97 Mins
THE PLOT James McAvoy is the young Charles Xavier (the future Professor X) in the origins story of the X-Men. Hired by a secret government agency, Xavier is tasked with tracking down Kevin Bacon’s murderous Sebastian Shaw, a powerful mutant who feeds on energy and is bent on starting nuclear war to feed his power and leave humankind weakened and ripe for conquest.
THE REVIEW I sat down in the cinema not expecting too much of this film, but hoping to be entertained and not disappointed. And that’s exactly what I got.
Set against the back drop of the 60’s Cuban Missile Crisis (here, instigated by Shaw) Xavier puts together a team of mutants to find Shaw and stop him. This is the beginnings of the X-Men with Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Centurion’s Michael Fassbender), Raven/Mystique, Riptide, Banshee and Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult).
The majority of the character and plot development is geared towards establishing the central characters of Xavier, Magneto and Raven (or Mystique as she was later known) and provide some essence to carry over to follow-up films. This development nicely filled in some of the background to characters the audience has already come to know through X-Men and X2.
The bad guy’s, led by Shaw are disappointingly one dimensional henchmen types, made more disappointing by the much under-used, but increasingly typecast Jason Flemyng as a NIghtcrawler-alike Azazel.
The final set piece battle is entertaining but never exhilarating and bookends this review nicely in that this movie is entertaining at its peaks and still watchable in its troughs.
THE VERDICT X-Men: First Class is a fun, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, blockbuster that will entertain but not enthral TC
Director: Matthew Vaughn Writers: Ashley Miller (screenplay) (as Ashley Edward Miller), Zack Stentz (screenplay), Jane Goldman (screenplay), Matthew Vaughn (screenplay), Sheldon Turner (story) and Bryan Singer (story) Stars: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Lawrence, Oliver Platt, Álex González, Jason Flemyng, Zoë Kravitz and Nicholas Hoult Running Time: 132 Mins
