“Declan Burke is his own genre. The Lammisters dazzles, beguiles and transcends. Virtuoso from start to finish.” – Eoin McNamee “This bourbon-smooth riot of jazz-age excess, high satire and Wodehouse flamboyance is a pitch-perfect bullseye of comic brilliance.” – Irish Independent Books of the Year 2019 “This rapid-fire novel deserves a place on any bookshelf that grants asylum to PG Wodehouse, Flann O’Brien or Kyril Bonfiglioli.” – Eoin Colfer, Guardian Best Books of the Year 2019 “The funniest book of the year.” – Sunday Independent “Declan Burke is one funny bastard. The Lammisters ... conducts a forensic analysis on the anatomy of a story.” – Liz Nugent “Burke’s exuberant prose takes centre stage … He plays with language like a jazz soloist stretching the boundaries of musical theory.” – Totally Dublin “A mega-meta smorgasbord of inventive language ... linguistic verve not just on every page but every line.Irish Times “Above all, The Lammisters gives the impression of a writer enjoying himself. And so, dear reader, should you.” – Sunday Times “A triumph of absurdity, which burlesques the literary canon from Shakespeare, Pope and Austen to Flann O’Brien … The Lammisters is very clever indeed.” – The Guardian

Friday, May 20, 2011

Nobody Move, This Is A Review: Blitz

Based on Ken Bruen’s novel of the same name, Blitz (18s) opens with a very Irish swagger, as rogue London copper DI Brant (Jason Statham) confronts three young car-jackers while wielding a hurley. A hurley, he tells them, is used in an Irish sport called hurling, which is halfway between hockey and murder. His off-beat credentials established, along with his role as vigilante cop, Brant proceeds to investigate the serial killing of London cops by a killer calling himself ‘the Blitz’ (Aiden Gillen), aided by his new superior, Porter Nash (Paddy Considine), who is himself an outsider within the force, due to the fact that he’s gay. A satisfyingly meaty tale, Blitz is directed with no little verve by Elliott Lester (‘Love is the Drug’), who blends idiosyncratic characters, a blistering pace and an intriguing whiff of right-wing polemic to create a fascinating thriller. There’s more than a touch of Dirty Harry about DI Brant, but Statham’s understated take on the role, and some very neat comic timing when delivering deliciously black one-liners, give the character a fresh feel. Considine provides strong support, as does David Morrissey as a reptilian tabloid journalist, while Gillen visibly relishes the opportunity to go full-tilt bonkers as the sociopathic killer. A sub-plot concerning itself with one of Brant’s colleagues, WPC Falls (Zawe Ashton), could have been excised, but otherwise Blitz is a powerful thriller that delivers a scabrous social commentary alongside the sturm und drang of Brant’s self-destructive force of nature. Oh, and watch out for a neat little cameo from Ken Bruen himself, as a - what else? - priest officiating at a funeral. - Declan Burke

  Blitz goes on general release from May 20th.

4 comments:

Mike Dennis said...

Thanks for posting this review, Dec. British crime films are among my very favorite genres and Statham, of course, is a veteran of many of them. I'll look for BLITZ.

Anonymous said...

What did you think of London Boulevard? I thought Colin Farrell was good in that but the story was a bit weak.

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Dana King said...

Thanks for the heads up, Dec. We don;t go to a lot of movies, but we like Statham, and this one sounds like it's worth seeing.