Blitz (Blu-ray) (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Main Menu Audio & Animation-Animation plus live action with score. Theatrical Trailer-Conan (1080p) 2:09. Theatrical Trailer-Abduction (1080p) 2:24 Teaser Trailer-Blackbird Diaries (1080p) 0:30
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	102:11
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Elliott Lester
Studio Distributor	Lionsgate UK Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Jason Statham Paddy Considine Aidan Gillen Zawe Ashton David Morrissey Richard Riddell
Case	?
RPI	$44.95	Music	Ilan Eshkeri

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Auto Pan & Scan Encoded	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, Opening attack scene (3 minutes).

     Back in 1998 Jason Statham made a big impression in his first movie, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Since then he has made approximately thirty films and in doing so has virtually taken over the "tough guy with muscles" genre. His audience knows what to expect of a Jason Statham movie. In pursuit of the bad guys there will be heaps of stunt-filled action, in which the star is obviously highly involved. He will probably wear dapper, shiny suits, frequently bare his hairily muscled chest, drive fast cars and deliver sharp one liners in his gruffly whispered monotone. Any love interest will be nubile, wafer thin and temporary. Statham fans may be disappointed with Blitz, as it is not what we have come to expect from this virile action star. Thankfully there is not even a car chase, but there is a genuinely exciting pursuit on foot that has more genuine excitement than most of the recent four-wheeled variety.

     The film opens with the fully clothed Detective Sergeant Tom Brant (Jason Statham) lying on his couch, stretched across the scope widescreen. A sound draws him to the window and he sees a group of teens attacking his parked car. Brant grabs a hurley, like a hockey stick, and races to the street where he proceeds to brutally attack the teens, pausing only to deliver his first succinct one liner: “If you're picking the wrong fight ... at least pick the right weapon.” His actions get Brant on the carpet with his superiors, who view him as a cop out of control. A media campaign against this brutal cop is diverted by the emergence of a serial cop killer who boldly announces his intention to murder members of the force. To redeem himself, Brant is assigned to track down the killer. The unfortunate German title for the DVD release is Cop Killer vs. Killer Cop, and given this basic outline we can very easily determine the course of the film's plot, but it is the development and treatment of the various elements which give this film a refreshingly different edge.

     The primary element which raises the calibre of this film is the treatment of character. Statham's Brant has elements of so many tough cops from Dirty Harry to McLintock and all stops in between. There is still the explosive brutality we expect from this actor's characters, but there is more depth and subtlety to the role and the performance than we have come to expect. It is, however, the subsidiary characters that are made sufficiently different to add enormous interest to the drama. Brant has a new superior, Porter Nash, a rather dapper, physically nondescript homosexual who lives alone in a meticulously neat apartment. Paddy Considine, probably best known for The Bourne Ultimatum but so good in the BBC production Red Riding, creates an interesting, complex character without a stereotype in sight. The third main character is the sociopathic serial killer Barry Weiss, who derives his titular nickname from blitzkrieg. Aiden Gillen has been outstanding in Queer as Folk and The Wire and here creates a truly memorable villain, not memorable for any excess of villainy, but more for the basic normality and reality of his on screen presence. There are other interesting characters, such as the journalist Dunlop (Dadid Morrissey of State of Play), the widower Chief Inspector Roberts, played by Mark Rylance (Intimacy), and others who populate the violent world of Tom Brant.

     There is also excellent work from Zawe Ashton, Luke Evans and Christina Cole, with possibly too many characters for just one film. As well there are multiple plot elements and themes, such as the hunt for the serial killer, police violence, police corruption, the culpability of the media, drug addiction, homosexuality and professional burn-out. There is the danger with all of this for film overload, with too many characters, too many elements to the plot and too many themes - and all in just over ninety minutes. However, when so many screenplays today are barren of ideas and invention, it is remarkable to find a film with this surfeit of ideas. Fortunately the screenplay and the direction have complete control of the material, and lead us through the characters and plot developments with complete clarity. Only in retrospect do we have time to regret that a character or a theme was left undeveloped. This excess of material is probably due to the fact that the screenplay by Nathan Parker, who gave us the excellent Moon, is based on one of a series of Ken Bruen novels which contain a number of continuing characters, primarily Detective Sergeant Brant and Chief Inspector Roberts. Blitz is based on the fourth in this series of seven novels, and if this first film earns its keep I'm sure we will see Statham return to play the out of control Brant once again.

     Director Elliott Lester, a director of over a hundred music videos and whose only other feature directorial credit is for Love is the Drug in 2006, has handled his material with controlled style. There is nothing tricky here, happily no trace of shaky-cam sham realism. The widescreen framing of images is handsome, just one aspect of the excellent camerawork from Rob Hardy (A Boy). I particularly liked the unusual, without being quirky, framing of various characters at the wheels of their vehicles. It's just one small touch in a very well crafted film. Another admirable aspect is the choice of London locations. There are no picture postcard shots of familiar landmarks or red double-decker buses. Instead we enter a drab and ordinary London that reflects the lives of the rather gritty and grimy characters of the tale.

     I have liked Jason Statham in some of his films, but there has been a formulaic sameness to recent efforts. Blitz came as a real surprise. Here Statham is simply playing the lead in an exceptionally good crime thriller about a serial cop killer. The setting, writing and plot are all fresh and inventive and the director has made an extremely tight and exciting film with excellent performances from a large ensemble cast. The disc looks and sounds fine, but we get no extras.

Video

     This grittily dramatic film is given a first rate transfer that perfectly complements the film's style and content. The 1080p transfer is presented at the ratio of 2.35:1 and is yet another excellent Blu-ray rendering of a new film.

     The image is very sharp, without having that eye-popping brilliance that the medium is capable of. I surmise that the makers have gone for a more realistic, less glossy look for this very dramatic crime thriller. This creative choice is also seen in the occasionally more grainy sequence, which adds to the realism of the film as a whole. Happily there is no shaky hand-held nonsense, with the camera beautifully controlled in every shot. This is, in fact, a beautifully executed film technically, with superb camera work featuring beautiful, arrestingly composed images, and flawless editing.

     Detail is excellent throughout, in both the gritty London exteriors as well as the often seedy interiors. Shadow detail is exceptional in the frequently dimly lit scenes. The colour palette is also determined by the nature of the film, with a subdued colour spectrum with excellent skin tones. It is very difficult to fault this excellent disc.

     The English Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired are outstanding. A colour change is used to indicate a change in character speaking, and the lines are placed on screen as close to the speaker as possible. This is one of the best examples of captioning I have seen.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The excellent image quality is not let down by the audio offered on this disc. There is one audio stream, English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio.

     Dialogue is basically front and centre and very distinct, although the English accents at times had me tempted to sample the subtitles. There were no sync problems.

     I was very pleased to note the movement of centre sound to the front left and right channels quite frequently throughout the film, such as with cars moving off screen and characters moving from one room to another. There was also lively use of the surrounds for ambience as well as effects when appropriate. The subwoofer was noticeably contributing whenever the situation arose, and the very prominent Ilan Eshkeri score was dynamically bouncing from all channels. At times the symphonic score may be a little overpowering, as in the punctuation of the opening bashing of the hoods by our "hero", but generally the music seems just right for this extremely dynamic film.

     The Descriptive Narration for the vision Impaired is delivered by a youngish sounding English male, in a fairly flat fashion, which is the norm. I sampled about ten minutes and found the descriptions more than adequate.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     The local release has nothing extra apart from the main menu and just over five minutes of Lionsgate trailers at start-up.

Start-Up Trailers :

     On start-up we are served up three enjoyable trailers of Lionsgate product, all presented 1080p and looking very good.

• Conan (2:09) : Presented 2.40:1.
• Abduction (2.24) : Presented 2.40:1, with Taylor Lautner and much better unmentioned actors.
• Blackbird Diaries - Teaser trailer (0:30) : Presented 1.78:1.

Main Menu

     The menu is presented 1.78:1 with a quite intricate mixture of live action and animation, with music from the score.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

     Unfortunately we are given a truly bare bones local Blu-ray release, without even a theatrical trailer. The local release misses out on :

• UK Theatrical Trailer (1:58) : 480p.
• Cast and Crew Interviews (32:00) : 480p.
• Behind the Scenes (12:19) : 480p.
• Spanish subtitles.

     Potentially this could have been a great police thriller, but as it stands it is a darned good one. The script is tight, despite the many characters and plot elements, direction assured and the performances first rate, with Jason Statham the best he has been for a while. Excellent and unusual locations, combined with first rate photography and sound, all add to a taught and terrific ninety minutes of highly dramatic, adult entertainment. What a pity we are given no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall