Film Review: Blitz (2011)

 

SYNOPSIS:

A crazed gunman calling himself “Blitz” is running around killing police officers. It’s up to a tough detective with anger management issues to stop the madman before any more cops are killed.

REVIEW:

While I have always liked Jason Statham (he always does an excellent job of playing a hardcore badass and just seems like a genuinely nice guy), but have never really cared for any of his movies. I have never been a fan of action flicks as the biggest majority of the ones that I have seen have been cheesy, poorly-written, and full of the same old clichés that have been used over and over again in action/adventure movies for decades (such as the main character’s partner who is about to retire being killed, the main character is trying to deal with the fact that he or she couldn’t save a loved one, etc). Keeping all of this in mind I popped “Blitz” into the DVD player and hoped for the best. Unfortunately it turned out to be just another action flick that wasn’t anything special.

It may not be fair to call “Blitz” an action flick as it could best be described as an action/thriller. It isn’t just a brainless action film with no plot and a bunch of stuff exploding everywhere (like one of Michael Bay’s sh*tty movies), as it does have a pretty decent storyline. The problem though, is that it is a storyline that has been done countless times before in some shape or form in other movies. If you scroll through action movies on Netflix or look in the “Action” section of you local video store (if you are lucky enough to still have one in your town-if so I envy you) then you are guaranteed to run across hundreds of movies that have a plot that is similar (if not identical). I am always hearing people bitch about how there is no originality in horror films any more (which is bullsh*t if you bother to look hard enough), but not once have I ever heard the same complaint about action flicks, which have been just the same since the beginning of time and don’t look to change anytime soon.

I think that the lack of originality may be this film’s biggest problem. In addition to the same old, same old, storyline we also have cookie cutter characters that have shown up in thousands of action films since the dawn of time. Statham plays the same tough guy character who has trouble controlling his temper that people like Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood (among others) have played numerous times before. We also get annoying journalist and drug addicted cop characters who usually pop up in films like this one, as well as the villain who is doing what he does because he is seeking revenge for some injustice he was forced to endure at the hands of a police officer. About halfway into the movie I had almost convinced myself that I had actually already seen it before and had just forgotten about it, which shows just how unoriginal it really was.

I think that another major flaw of the movie is the villain. In addition to being totally and completely unoriginal, he is just lame as hell in general. I think that having an awesome villain is one of the main things that an action flick needs if it is going to be better than the others, and this is another area where “Blitz” doesn’t deliver. I don’t want to give anything away (though I don’t guess it matters since it really isn’t a mystery as to who the killer is-another ball dropped by the filmmakers in my opinion-and his identity is revealed early on)but his motivation for doing what he does is pretty damn cheesy and just plain silly. In addition, he is by no means a criminal mastermind and is as about as intimidating as Pee Wee Herman.

“Blitz” just didn’t do anything for me, but then again I am just not really that into these types of movies. Someone else who thinks that Sylvester Stallone is the greatest actor of our generation and that films such as “Cobra” and “XXX” were robbed by the Academy for not winning Oscars for Best Picture may love every single moment of this movie. To me though, it was just another forgettable action/thriller that really didn’t stand out among any of the others that I have seen. Check it out if this is your type of movie, but don’t get your hopes up that you are going to witness a ground-breaking masterpiece in the world of action cinema.

Blitz (2011)