Blitz – review

Oddly entertaining, this London cop thriller dangles a tempting two-for-one offer. Buy a violent geezer caper – Jason "international action hero" Statham giving it some as a bovver boy in blue, doling out street justice with a hockey stick – and they'll throw in the best of Brit acting: Paddy Considine playing his gay police boss and Aidan Gillen as a cop killer. David Morrissey pops up as a grubby tabloid hack. It's not half bad, adapted from a Ken Bruen novel and slickly directed by Elliott Lester. London is dirty-looking, the detective work shonky at times. It's all fag-end believable, although the plot gets increasingly silly and far-fetched. For Statham, this is as character-driven as it gets: a chink of humour flashing through the bulldog charisma as he indulges in a spot of mild hetero-flirting with Considine's cop. Who knows, we might be looking at the evolution of the guilty-pleasure movie – padded out with top-drawer talent to spare audience blushes.