Han, in London

Well. Today I watched a very, very odd film. So odd that I'm actually posting about something I've watched twice in two days. It's like it's 2009 or something. 

(as per usual, this is not a review but more a ramble)

Blitz is a film adaptation of a Ken Bruen novel. I have tried to read a Ken Bruen novel in the past - possibly this one - but did not finish it as I just could not get on with the style. It stars Jason Statham as DS Tom Brant, who is a massive cliche. MASSIVE. CLICHE. It's amazing how many stereotypical tough, gritty London copper elements are packed into this one guy. 

Also in the cast are Paddy Considine, David Morrissey, Zawe Ashton and Aiden Gillen. 

Spoilers beyond the cut...

( Spoilers )

So, all in all, I would recommend this film. The first part of the film was over the top gritty nonsense, but once the film gets over needing to establish Statham as the lone cop with no limits blah blah blah and just gets on with the plot it improves massively and actually does some unexpected things with its characters. I'm also tempted to give the book another try... 

ps I thought this Mark Kermode review made some very good points: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaiNU-1wMA8
pps just realised in this whole thing I haven't mentioned the action scenes: the film is fairly violent and the Statham fighting is not quite as good as in The Transporter (which is fair enough), but the action scenes are nicely put together and there's only one point where I thought it got too violent. Actually on the whole there are some really good shots where things are implied rather than shown full-on.