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. – IMDB
So to start with Welcome To The Punch is a drama not an action movie, as you would be lead to believe after watching the trailer for the film, it’s also not an over exciting drama at that.
Writer and director Eran Creevy (Shifty), has yet again brought us a quite miserable looking film, that really attempts to show the glory of guns and gangsters in a big time US style movie that is filmed in the UK.
Welcome To The Punch (or slap)
The main problem I have with Welcome To The Punch is the characters, besides the fact that they do seem quite one-dimensional, is they do seem to be miscast with the actors playing their parts.
James McAvoy seems so out-of-place as Matt Lewinsky, an emotionally scarred and on the edge copper after an incident three years before where he was shot in the leg by the main villain Jason Sternwood (Mark Strong), who is playing a part we do know him for.
There are some scenes throughout out the film that do stick in your mind, but besides certain moments, the film is a run of the mill movie that really doesn’t shout out much to you at all and most of it you’ve seen done many times before in the bug budget US movies.
The feeling I got while watching Welcome To The Punch is that it was filmed on a tight and low-budget and judging by its cost to make $8,500,000 I may have been right.
Welcome To The Punch does have a good British cast including David Morrissey (Doctor Who, Walking Dead), Jason Flemyng (Snatch), Peter Mullan (War Horse) and Daniel Mays (Ashes To Ashes, The Bank Job), but they don’t help the film out much, besides faces that we recognise.
I found myself at one point starting to drift off as the films relentless moments of silent drawn out scenes really started to wear thin.
Overall Thoughts For Welcome To The Punch
Sadly more of a case of Welcome to the Slap, as the film doesn’t really pull a punch for the audience, nice idea for the storyline, which has been sadly let down by the overall feel of the movie, nice to see another film with a large amount of British actors, but it still doesn’t save the film from being lacklustre.
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
