Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Blitz (2011)
Director: Elliott Lester
Movie review
From Time Out London
How can a film which gets so much wrong be so thoroughly enjoyable? ‘Blitz’ has dialogue so ripe you can almost smell it, plot holes you could drive a truck through and a plank of wood in the lead role. It’s laughably derivative, politically dubious, wildly overbearing and incredibly silly. It’s also cracklingly paced, blissfully unsophisticated and enormous fun. Much of this is due to the casting: Jason Statham is typically lifeless as a violently troubled East End cop on the edge, allowing Paddy Considine to steal the limelight as his by-the-book gay sidekick. But it’s Aiden Gillen (right) who takes top honours as the titular madcap cop killer, channeling the young Gary Oldman into a performance of self-mocking cool and giddy psychotic subversion. It’s a fine-looking film, too: director Elliott Lester gives London a slick but eerily beautiful MTV sheen, and his action work is crunchily compelling. It’s hard to know how seriously anyone besides Statham is taking this – but that only adds to its absurd, cock-eyed charm.Author: Tom Huddleston
Time Out London Issue 2126: 19 – 26 May, 2011
Cast & crew
Director: Elliott Lester
Cast: Jason Statham, Paddy Considine, Aidan Gillen
Genre(s): Action/Adventure, Thrillers
Duration: 97 mins
Features
Gray's anatomy
James Gray wants to push buttons—again.
The next big thing?
Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.
Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema
So you think you can dance, comrade?
Puppet master
Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.
Socratic method
Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.
Wander woman
Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.
Oscars
Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.
What do you think?
Post your review now