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Welcome to the Punch Movie Review
Welcome to the Punch is the second movie from British writer and director Eran Creevy, whose first movie Shifty was first released way back in 2008. With Welcome to the Punch, Creevy has stepped up his game more than a few notches, with a visual style that is strong, consistent and leagues better than the often lo-fi approach most British movies employ. This strong visual style is what makes Welcome to the Punch so interesting, its a well crafted, well filmed and beautifully visual movie that is so well done it doesn’t even really matter what the actors are saying. You get the feeling that was Creevy goal, to create a super slick, ultra stylish, crime thriller, that has pace, action and sets a tone for how good British movies can look.
With Welcome to the Punch we follow detective Max Lewinsky played by James McAvoy, who gives the character that feisty pep that McAvoy does so well. Lewinsky failed to get his man years ago, Jacob Sternwood, played by Mark Strong, a career criminal that evaded Lewinsky’s capture and fled England. Now Sternwood’s son is in trouble, and he has to come back to England, giving Lewinsky another crack at him.
I liked Welcome to the Punch, it’s a stylish slick action cat and mouse movie done with the highest visual flair, and its British, i just cant get over that. The dialogue is sparse the main leads don’t have enough story for us to get truly invested in them, and some of the supporting characters have more going on than them than the leads, but Welcome to the Punch is still worth your time. All the actors involved give more than satisfactory performances, Strong is well strong and silent, McAvoy doesn’t necessarily fit the jaded role yet, he seems to young to pull that off just yet, but still brings a fierce emotional portrayal to the lead detective. Andrea Riseborough plays McAvoy’s detective partner well, leading support and sage advice when needed, and watch our for David Morrissey who is always interesting when playing these power positions, and of course many people will currently recognise him as the Governor.
So Welcome to the Punch, solid, stylish British action movie that hopefully helps to usher in more stylish movies from England. While it’s not the perfect movie, it still makes me extremely happy to this type of movie getting made. Even more than this, I’m super excited to see what the Eran Creevy does next.
