Ex-criminal Jacob Sternwood is forced to return to London when his son is involved in a heist gone wrong. This gives his nemesis, detective Max Lewinsky, one last chance to catch the man he's always been after.
Welcome to the Punch has bravado, a derivative sort of style, and a depressing quantity of mindless, noisy violence. That Creevy has talent isn’t in question; whether this substanceless stuff is the best outlet for it is another matter.
While definitely enjoyable, like an annoying itch it just feels a mite too self aware of the genre it wants be classified in for you to relax into watching it.
Creevy admits he has made this film for the post-pub Friday night crowd, but even they deserve a nice cask ale rather than the watered-down lager this offers.
Less a film, more a pilot for one of those undemanding weekday police dramas that ITV churns out, Welcome To The Punch would be a lot more welcome if the action was less relentlessly generic and its characters less off-the-peg.
A confident, ambitious and action-rich Brit thriller, albeit one whose characters and clarity suffer from the frantic intensity of its pacing.
Shifty director Eran Creevy’s ambitious attempt to make a flat-out, London-set genre film in the mould of Asian action thrillers such as Infernal Affairs and A Bittersweet Life kind of works and kind of doesn’t.
It deserves respect as a kind of instructive failure — an honest showcase for the various ways Creevy can and should keep getting better.
All in all, a homegrown product to cheer, if not wholly to cherish.
This is an ambitious picture that may have drawn some inspiration from the Hong Kong Infernal Affairs movies, and I sense that it may well get box-office success. But it runs out of steam, with plot revelations visible from a mile away and a bit of a plausibility gap.
Doesn't pack a punch.
Notable cast members include Andrea Riseborough and Peter Mullan but it is the calm, coiled energy of Mark Strong's steely Sternwood that secures the acting honours.
There's hope for the humble British crime thriller yet.
The plot, involving a conspiracy between gangsters, police and politicians, is confused, but the set pieces (most especially the opening robbery) are expertly, if self-consciously staged.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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