Review: Welcome to the Punch

by A.J.

Welcome to the Punch opens with detective Lewinsky, played by James McAvoy, in hot pursuit of elite criminal Jacob Sternwood, played by Mark Strong. Sternwood escapes, Lewinsky is wounded in the knee and spends the next 3 years falling down the ladder of the London police department. When Sternwood’s son is caught up in a heist gone wrong, he comes out of hiding to try to save his son giving Lewinsky another chance to capture his nemesis.

Better movies have been made with simpler premises, so I’m hesitant to blame the material. It seems that just not enough was done to keep the story energetic and moving. There is more behind that heist gone wrong, but the build up to that reveal is a slow one. Characters at many different levels of the London police department, as well as criminal underworld are introduced. You might guess that they all intersect; eventually they do. In the meantime we have a cool blue-tinged London and a police department that only employs people under 35.

Whether from the 1960s or the 21^st century, I really enjoy gritty British crime movies. There is enough interesting camerawork and good performances to keep the first two thirds of this movie from being unbearably dull. Things finally pick up in time for the final shootout; which is a good one, very intense and action packed. Welcome to the Punch is gritty in tone more than visuals and in its better moments reminded me of The French Connection and L.A. Confidential, but ultimately falls short of being a notable entry in the gritty British crime genre. 
 

A Few Highlights of 2013, So Far...

by A.J.

The year 2013 is slightly more than half way done. Though I haven’t been to the movies as much as I would have liked, there have been some highlights and here are three.

If I had to distinguish one movie as “best of the year, so far” it would be:

The Place Beyond the Pines

This is an excellent multi-character, generational family drama of the kind that you might have seen on a semi-regular basis 20 or maybe even 10 years ago. It’s becoming a cliché to say that good character based dramas are rare these days, but it is true; and The Place Beyond the Pines is this year’s rarity. Spanning 15 years and 4 central characters this movie feels bigger in scale than I’m sure it’s budget could allow. This movie is essentially 3 different stories about fathers and sons and criminals and cops with overlapping characters. Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling are great, as you might expect, but seeing them work with material that is truly worthy of their talents is especially satisfying.
The Place Beyond the Pines comes out on DVD/Blu-Ray on August 6th.

Trance

Danny Boyle’s Trance is an excellent example of a “Neo-Noir” film. Film Noir is the distinction applied to crime dramas from the 1940’s and 50’s that were dark in subject matter and style. They usually concerned criminals or detectives and unsavory schemes. The definition of a film noir is as detailed as it is changeable, depending on who you ask. If you ask me, the noir style goes beyond the classic noir period of the 40’s and 50’s. Plenty of films made since qualify as noirs since the central elements of a film noir are timeless. Trance is about a group of art thieves trying to recover their recent theft from their inside man, an art auctioneer played by James McAvoy, who is unfortunately suffering from amnesia after double crossing them. The leader of the thieves, Vincent Cassel, goes along with a plan to have a hypnotherapist, Rosario Dawson, help him recover his lost memories. The plot twists and turns as memories are recovered and we learn more about the characters and just exactly why McAvoy’s character decided to double cross his gang in the first place. There are maybe one too many twists and turns, but this is still an entertaining noir fueled by the energetic style of director Danny Boyle.

Danny Boyle's Trance comes out on DVD and Blu-Ray July 23rd.

The Heat

So we’ve seen plenty of mismatched buddy cop comedies, more than a few of them have been good, but it’s been a long time since we’ve seen one about female buddy cops. It’s been a while since I’ve seen Sandra Bullock in a decent comedy, too. Luckily, The Heat is a hilarious movie. Bullock plays a straight-laced FBI agent in pursuit of a drug kingpin who crosses paths with Melissa McCarthy, playing a wild card Boston cop in pursuit of the same drug kingpin. They partner up despite their differences and hilarity ensues. I know, it’s a formula, but all the correct variables were put in the right places: comedic director Paul Feig, funny actresses Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, and a script by Katie Dippold that is more concerned with making sure the characters are funny people than bashing us over the head with “Hey, look! Women can be funny!” A quote from Paul Feig, who also directed Bridesmaids, has been circulating around the internet: “[I want] men to come away from it going, like, ‘I’m not afraid of two women being funny’… These are just two very funny people and you’re just going to laugh for almost two hours.” It’s true. You’ll laugh for about two hours if you watch The Heat.

The Heat is currently in theaters.