A snitch sits in a bar, dripping with all the trappings of an intimidating criminal – tacky jewellery, greasy facial hair, and vicious dogs fondly named Posh and Becks. Unfortunately, he’s sitting beside Jason Statham. A testosterone-fuelled tank in a leather jacket, he makes his companion look like a posturing weasel in comparison. When he demands information, his informant asks meekly, “Aren’t you going to take notes?” Statham just gives a withering stare, and growls “Do I look like I carry a pencil?”
Statham plays Tom Brant, a hardnosed detective known for his somewhat unorthodox methods of dealing with criminals (clue: it often involves him using a crowbar, and them using life support.) But when a murderer calling himself Blitz starts targeting cops and Brant’s colleagues are picked off one by one, the race is on to find and incapacitate the killer. Acting as a foil to Statham’s overwhelming, rasping machismo is the brilliantly dignified Paddy Considine as the new poshboy police sergeant trying to fit into the rough schoolyard mentality of his hardened colleagues.
As Blitz, Aidan Gillen’s performance is a powerhouse of sheer craziness. Cocky, twitchy and constantly laughing to himself, he’s completely convincing as an unhinged fame-hungry murderer. As he pulverises a policeman’s face with a hammer only to sit down, splattered in blood, to giddily watch his favourite gameshow, or is arrested only to demand the chance to update his Facebook status, he seems capable of anything – except, that is, getting caught.
Smart, sharp, shocking, and at times bloody (and bloodily) hilarious, Blitz’s witty script and pacy action elevates its simple premise into a brilliantly gritty tale of moral ambiguity, showing all the shady bribes and deals involved in not only the lives of criminals, but cops and journalists too. The vicious murder scenes aren’t for the faint-hearted or weak-stomached, so time to make like Statham and get well ‘aaaard, mate.