Welcome to the Punch (2013)

Absolutely brilliant

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Police detective Max was chasing a criminal named Jacob Sternwood and gets shot in the knee. The injury is a daily reminder to him and Sternwood escaped to Iceland. Years later, Sternwood's son gets caught at the airport by the police and the incident forced Sternwood to come back in action. The film opens with a heist scene and As a lightweight entertainer it works. McAvoy portraits the cop role and Strong handle the tough criminal role. The pace of Eran's story negatively affects the whole movie. The Creevy's film has a different approach to its genre and the only thing that actually works in the movie is the intense chase scenes. Overall, It's an action oriented movie and watchable one too.

This movie begins with a robbery in progress which a young British cop named "Max Lewinsky" (James McAvoy) tries to stop all by himself. For his efforts one of the burglars by the name of "Jacob Sternwood" (Mark Strong) shoots him in the knee and then leaves lying in pain on the street. Three years later Max is still looking for the man who shot him. So when Jacob's son is shot and in critical condition at a London hospital Max convinces his superiors that allow him to stake out the hospital room in anticipation of Jacob's visit. What Max doesn't know is that there are others who want Jacob even more badly than Max and this puts both Max and Jacob in the same crossfire. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that this was a decent crime film which had plenty of action to keep things interesting. Unfortunately, the director (Eran Creevy) wasn't able to maintain the mystery and suspense throughout the course of the movie and as a result it became somewhat predictable and routine toward the end. In any case, it was still entertaining for the most part and I have rate it accordingly. Slightly above average.

"Welcome to the Punch" is only an adequate film from 2013. It is currently available on NetFlix Instant Download Streaming. It is written and directed by Eran Creevy. Welcome To The Punch made me leave the cinema feeling very confused. Not because of the storyline, no. The tale is set in a blue-tinted, modern day London. Max Lewinsky (James McAvoy) is still pretty hung up over being shot by bad guy Jacob Sternwood (Mark Strong) and gets his one chance at revenge when Sternwood returns to London after his son Ruan (Elyes Gabel) is shot himself and severely injured. Simple enough. Whilst the casting was strong, the acting solid (especially McAvoy's portrayal of a man obsessed with revenge and filled with anger and self-hatred) and the film itself is shot beautifully, I couldn't help but leave feeling I'd been robbed of a real movie, a real ending. Whilst there are moments when unexpected gunshots will cause you jump a good couple of feet out the chair, there are only so many shoot-outs you can sit through before wondering if anyone even knows how to use a gun. Especially when the people using them are supposedly some of the best marksmen around. So whilst there are tales of corruption, unexplained changes of heart and some shocking, upsetting moments, the storyline becomes relatively predictable too early on for my liking and the film seems to come to a sudden, abrupt end. If you're looking to be entertained for just under a couple of hours without questioning too much, this is the film for you. If like me you expect more from a movie with a cast and the budget shown, prepare to leave the screen feeling as if you've been poked a few times in the arm. I gave it only 4 stars Dale Haufrect

I've been waiting to see 'Welcome to the Punch' ever since I heard about it (and managed to miss its cinema release). Mark Strong is such a talented actor. I've seen him in a few films which weren't very good, yet his performance has made it worthwhile. Then you have James McAvoy, who always turns in a great performance no matter what he's in. How could I lose? I did. Welcome to the Punch is billed as 'Britain's answer to Heat.' If that's the best we can do, I think we should let Hollywood win on this one. This is nothing like Heat. Never before have so many talented - British - actors been assembled and produced something so average.I won't say it's bad, just totally mediocre. It's about policeman, James McAvoy, seeking revenge on the gangster, Mark Strong, who shot him during a previous robbery. Nothing special plot-wise, but with such a good cast you should expect them to make something more out of it. However, the best part of the film was the way it's filmed. London has never looked so cool and stylish, plus it seems to be shot using some sort of blue/green filter to give it all an ultra-cool look.If you really want to see another British gangster movie then this one isn't bad. Then again, perhaps it's worse than bad - it's disappointing.http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/