Review
No-one would have blamed writer-director Eran Creevy if he’d stayed in the same suburban council-estate groove of his 2008 debut Shifty. Instead, with Welcome To The Punch, he’s boldly moved to The Big City (London, stylistically via Los Angeles and Hong Kong), ambitiously upscaled (with none other than Sir Ridley Scott as his mentor) and delivered a boisterous, unashamed and affectionate pastiche of the cops-and-robbers action thriller.

Punch is firmly British, from the setting to the locations to the performers. No stunt-American casting here. It is a quality ensemble: James McAvoy playing against type as dogged, tightly wound police detective Max Lewinsky; Mark Strong playing to his strengths as career criminal Jacob Sternwood; Andrea Riseborough as Max’s tough-cored but supportive partner; David Morrissey doing the dour boss thing; and Johnny Harris putting his terrifying, pebbly glare to terrific use as a twitchy assassin. Elsewhere you’ll spot such stalwarts as Peter Mullan and Ruth Sheen, plus Shifty alumni Daniel Mays and Jason Flemyng. A more proficient and charismatic cast than you’ll find in most Hollywood offerings of the same order.

Yet there’s something about Welcome To The Punch that doesn’t quite land like you feel it should. McAvoy is offbeat casting for a gritty copper; the slimness of his frame and the boyishness of his features are only emphasised in the scenes where he goes eyeball-to-eyeball with the ever-imposing Strong. But that is not so much the problem. It’s more that the film is just so relentlessly, ruthlessly plot-driven. It’s as if its sheer, twisting velocity causes it to shed weight. While there’s welcome moral ambiguity and a constant shifting of sympathies, there are too few breathers for us to settle down with these intriguing characters and feel a bit of their respective backstories. It’s not like the audience needs to be told or shown every last aspect of Max’s home life, or his history with Riseborough’s Sarah, or Jacob’s relationship with his ill-fated son. But we’re left feeling like we’re watching, ultimately, a collision of (admittedly well-groomed) archetypes, rather than a clash of characters in which we’ve fully invested.

It’s a shame, given Creevy’s attention to nuance in Shifty. But Punch does supply a palliative: sheer panache. London has never looked so shimmeringly gorgeous on screen, Creevy washing it in Michael Mann blue and dry-brushing it with gunmetal. The city is evocatively lit (by Shifty director of photography Ed Wild) and immaculately location-managed. It is presented as almost otherworldly, or rather, future-worldly. Visually, Punch is borderline sci-fi; an ordnance-choked, post-austerity Britain. The action, too, is slickly impressive. Creevy proudly revels in his numerous influences, toying with, although never deviating from, kinetic-thriller formula. One darkly amusing set-piece puts John Woo slo-mo gunplay amid the chintz of a granny-flat living room. The opening post-heist chase sends motorbikes thundering down subterranean, arched tunnels in a sequence that feels like Bourne crashed Skyfall. And, appropriately for the Canary Wharf-centred setting, it all ultimately goes down at the docks in a furious, incendiary flurry. If Welcome To The Punch lacks Shifty’s heart and soul, it at least benefits from a better physique than many of its modern American cousins.

Where Creevy must be applauded is in crafting a relatively lean thriller that not only looks stylish with its depiction of London bathed in a steel blue neon glow, but has its fair share of nicely handled action set pieces. There is a finely tuned sense of what makes an image dynamic and it plays with visual motifs throughout.

The cast put in stoic turns and both McAvoy and Strong make a good pairing as flip sides of the same coin with the intensity from both giving the film its hook.

The film is positively snatched at gunpoint by sparky supporting turns from Mullan (who gets the film’s best lines) and a forceful, edgy showcase of the talents of Johnny Harris as military-trained gun for hire Dean Harms. To witness this none-more-Cockney hardman discussing the finer points of Calamity Jane while being interrogated proves an enduring memory.

Lacking the profundity and underlying depth of other underworld dramas, everything here is surface level. It isn’t always a problem when that surface is so highly polished but it is missing a vital ingredient: characters we can invest in and get behind. With a slick running time of just over ninety minutes, there is never time to delve into what drives our lead characters. It keeps feeling pressured to hit that next action beat. It is at the times when it takes a diversion into surreally comic situations, like a granny cheerfully taken hostage, that it is at its most successful. Unfortunately these shards of levity are outweighed by just how seriously the rest of the film takes itself. http://entertainment.stv.tv/film/215621-welcome-to-the-punch-lands-a-few-strong-blows-but-doesnt-manage-knockout/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

James McAvoy gets to be a scarred, addicted and obsessive city cop but his London-drawl was a little distracting and although he still gives an honourable performance, it’s not fully convincing. However, Mark Strong plays his tough criminal-with-a-conscience quite perfectly and loves a good stare across the lens, whilst support from upcoming star Andrea Riseborough is respectable but she’s maybe a little underused. There should also be a special nod towards the man who steals every scene he’s in and it’s the unshakable Peter Mullan, who brings a firm focus to the film and exudes confidence and charisma.

WELCOME TO THE PUNCH is stylish and sophisticated, with some beautiful cinematography that sets up London into a world we’ve not seen before. It doesn’t exactly shock in the narrative sense, but all involved give solid and committed performances. This deserves your attention as Director Eran Creevy bravely sets up a new structure for UK thrillers; this one is certainly on the right track and a very artistic and detailed one at that. http://www.thehollywoodnews.com/2013/02/27/welcome-to-the-punch-review/

Welcome To The Punch walks and talks like an American crime thriller. With its slick and polished direction, its liberal use of blues and greens, and its three-dimensional bad guy, Creevy wears his influence on his sleeve: Michael Mann's Heat looms large. It's no bad thing.

Only every now and then, when Creevy signposts an upcoming twist all too much or when he inexplicably dumps the slick approach for crash zooms and wild pans, does he let the Mann team down. But he pulls it all back in time for the largely unneeded but giddy climatic shootout. The unarmed police vs. armed criminals debate is an interesting subplot, although an expansion on this wouldn't have gone astray. This is Creevy's calling card: I can deliver an exciting thriller with some top performances – come and get me, Hollywood. They should.

The confident and convincing cast do the job they're asked here. McAvoy might not be the first name to pop into your head to play a mean detective – he's too young and sweet-faced – but he gives it socks. Strong is, as always, strong. A special mention goes to Eddie Marsan lookalike Johnny Harris, whose edgy and nasty perp roots the plot in more realism than his co-stars. http://entertainment.ie/movie-review/Welcome-to-the-Punch/158400.htm

MarielovesJAM wrote:

---

OK, just got back from watching Welcome to the Punch.  What did I think??  Well, lets get straight to James' performance since that's is what we are all concerned about.  I may be bias (yeah I'm totally bias) but I disagree strongly with those idiotic critics who say James is too young, boyish, sweet, likable or too much of a 'good guy' to play hard, bitter and angry.  He may have a boyish aura about him, but he plays the role like a grown man who's been around the block a few times and it's time for the critics to stop trying to pigeon hole him into one category.

Are there many deleted scenes that you might include on the DVD release?

CREEVY:  Yeah.  There were consistent panic attacks that Mark Strong’s character had, throughout the entire film, like Hank does in Breaking Bad.  He kept having these horrific anxiety attacks, and it happened before every action sequence.  And I had this monologue about his wife and how she had died.  There was more history and more backstory to who he was, but it was a cops and robbers movie, so it had to remain in the present and the choices these characters were making now, rather than dwelling in the past and having these anxiety attacks that were connected to what had happened to him.  So, I decided to cut it out of the film.  There are still quite a few bits and bobs of backstory, and more personal moments between Andrea Riseborough and James McAvoy, flirting and getting closer, but it slowed the film down.  People said that the film moves too fast, but I did it on purpose.  If you go see a cops and robbers movie, it should move at a certain pace.  I’m bored of going to see two-and-a-half-hour movies where I’m falling asleep, so I was quite keen to bring it in at an hour and a half.  So, I cut some of the backstory out, but hopefully we can put it on the DVD.