Welcome to the Punch

Name: Welcome to the Punch
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller, Crime
Released: March 27, 2013
Duration: 99 min
Rating: 49
Cast: Andrea Riseborough, Daniel Mays, David Morrissey, James McAvoy, Johnny Harris

2013

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 43 Ratings

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6.1	Your Score
6.1	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 43 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

IFC Films | Release Date: March 27, 2013 | Not Rated

Starring: Andrea Riseborough, Daniel Mays, David Morrissey, James McAvoy, Johnny Harris, Mark Strong, Peter Mullan

Summary: When a notorious criminal is forced to return to London, it gives a detective one last chance to take down the man he's always been after.

Director: Eran Creevy

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Thriller, Crime

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 99 min

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Critic Reviews

The Playlist Oliver Lyttelton

Mar 11, 2013

For most of the run-time, Welcome To The Punch is thrillingly cinematic, beautifully made, smarter and funnier than you'd expect, and a phenomenal showcase for Creevy and his team. Read full review

Mike D'Angelo

Mar 27, 2013

Writer-director Eran Creevy demonstrates little facility for kineticism — one of the movie’s best scenes gets flat-out ruined when he abruptly shifts to hackneyed slo-mo — and his cynical plot gets so convoluted that one of the bad guys has to break it down for the audience in a climactic monologue-at-gunpoint. Read full review

Manohla Dargis

Mar 26, 2013

There are good movies and plenty more bad ones and many, many more that fall somewhere in between. And then there are enjoyable absurdities like Welcome to the Punch, which contain evaluative multitudes and which, scene by scene, register as not bad, pretty good and flat-out ridiculous. Read full review

Frank Scheck

Mar 27, 2013

Despite its fast pacing and well-staged action set-pieces, the film fails to make much of an impression. Read full review

Steve Erickson

Mar 26, 2013

When bullets aren't flying, the movie offers yesterday's goods in shiny new packaging. Read full review

The Guardian Peter Bradshaw

Mar 15, 2013

It runs out of steam, with plot revelations visible from a mile away and a bit of a plausibility gap. Read full review

Joe Neumaier

Mar 30, 2013

Unfortunately, the rest of writer-director Eran Creevy’s film just shows that the Brits, too, make good-looking but empty thrillers, just like in Hollywood. Read full review

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User Reviews

timefire44

Jan 29, 2015

I've watched it before, and it is as awesome as I don't know what. You see, when they did the casting for this film, I knew the found the perfect choice for the lead role in James McAvoy.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

hoops2448

Apr 25, 2013

A good British action film is hard to come by, one that emulates and builds on old school action directors like John Woo and John McTiernan is even harder. Welcome to the Punch is that film and because of that it is delightful. The film follows the events that happen when lifelong criminalA good British action film is hard to come by, one that emulates and builds on old school action directors like John Woo and John McTiernan is even harder. Welcome to the Punch is that film and because of that it is delightful. The film follows the events that happen when lifelong criminal Jacob Sternwood (Mark Strong) returns to Britain to investigate why his son has been attacked. While there he must contend with disenfranchised police officer Max Lewinsky (James McAvoy), someone Sternwood wounded years prior following one of his final heists. Welcome to the Punch isn't the most intelligent action thriller, in fact it can play quite predictable for a majority of its run time. It's not a film that tries to shock but it does try to impress in its writing (mostly successfully) and its performances (entirely successful), but most importantly the direction by Eran Creevy. The action in the film is sublime with an empty nightclub shootout being one of the finest gunfights since heat. The attention to detail is wonderful which adds a sense of realism to the action. Although John Woo Slow-Mo is used it never really feels out of place and gives the film a Max Payne Noir feel (the game not the film, never the film). Then again the film isn't all action, it's firmly placed in the thriller category as well as the film has an excellent sense of pace allowing for emotional moments as well as some very fast paced developments. It's a film that constantly shifts gears and because of that it is never boring and overall it manages to fit in enough great action moments to be a great movie.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

BrianMcCritic

Jul 24, 2013

This is a solid film that is a basically told as a very familiar police thriller. The acting is good and the film is shot well with good cinematography, but overall it's nothing special. B-

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

JLuis_001

Apr 9, 2018

Frankly it's an empty thriller considering how long it takes to make sense of its conflict and the plot twist with the protagonists feels unreal and even a little ridiculous. I'm surprised that both James MCovoy and Mark Strong have agreed to make a movie like this one.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

DCEdmonds

Nov 13, 2014

"Welcome to the Punch" 10 Scale Rating: 5.5 (Mediocre) ...

The Good: Great performances from McAvoy, Strong, and Harris. Some of their scenes are just flat out awesome and carry the film. The beginning was well done and grabs your interest right off the bat. The Bad: Sadly, it"Welcome to the Punch" 10 Scale Rating: 5.5 (Mediocre) ...

The Good: Great performances from McAvoy, Strong, and Harris. Some of their scenes are just flat out awesome and carry the film. The beginning was well done and grabs your interest right off the bat.

The Bad: Sadly, it struggles to keep your interest and becomes a pretty straight forward crime drama. Runs 1:39 but feels much longer as it slows down quite a bit in the middle and towards the end. The ending wasn't very satisfying.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

DawdlingPoet

Nov 28, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is an action thriller film, featuring themes including conspiracy, police, heists and flashbacks. Its quite fast paced, starting in the middle of action with a number of people quickly doing a getaway through London on motorbikes at night. It seemed quite slick and gripping based on that initial scene and certainly got my attention to start with. The fact its set at night also adds a sense of mystery and tension. The 'bad guys' sound like fairly typical London gangster types i.e. lugubrious. The camerawork was a little too jerky for my personal liking, during the faster, chase type scenes, it was quite disorientating and I found that frustrating. Some aspects of the plot are a bit predictable but it was tense enough to keep me watching regardless and its not so long as to become overly tedious, which is good - it has a total running time of about an hour and thirty nine minutes, for the record.

Cast wise, the good guy (cop) Max Lewinsky is played by James McAvoy. He comes across as an enthusiastic, up and coming young police officer determined to get his way, while the main villain, Jacob Sternwood, is played by Mark Strong. He is quite burly and intimidating and certainly not someone you'd want to mess with. Other cast emmbers include Andrea Riseborough, who plays Sarah Hawks, David Morissey, who plays Thomas Geiger and Johnny Harris as Dean Warns.

Content wise, the film contains strong language and moderate violence, including gunfire enduced violence but also fist fights and the like. Blood is shown at times and a corpse is also shown on screen at one point. Drug taking is shown if briefly, with someone shown injecting themselves. Otherwise, there's little else liekly to offend, that I was aware of in any case - the film has been given a 15 rating to reflect this.

To me, this came across as a relatively old fashioned British crime drama story but with some reasonable stylish flairs added at times, however the unnecessary jerky camerawork did bother me after a while. The lighting was such that the majority of scenes seemed to have a dark blue tint to it, which I guess was done to add to the urban feel of it, although im not sure it really made a great deal of difference overall. I think if the plot was adjusted in some areas, it would perhaps be a bit more impressive - its not a horrendous film but its certainly not great. I lost interest in the story somewhere between half way and three quarters of the way through, which obviously isn't great. If it helps, I'd say this film is a bit like the films Jason Statham appears in, with some relatively decent special effects and fast scenes but a little bland otherwise, so it didn't impress me too much. There was also a (if but mild/minor) element of sexism that I didn't think much of.

No, I wouldn't especially recommend it. Its not an awful film per se but its hardly very good - I thought it was pretty unmemorable really, although I imagine other people may enjoy it more than I did. It came across as a bit like a long TV programme, only slightly more stylish and slick during the fast paced scenes. The plot isn't entirely original either. Suffice to say, there are better and there are worse films of this type out there but overall I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to see it.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

hotcheese

May 20, 2013

This is one of the most generic movie I've seen this year. The entire cast is not only unmemorable, they are unlikable. Damn Brits aren't very good at making movie....

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

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