Blitz is a prime example of showing you how to waste an exemplary guest star. If you convince Mark Rylance (who does not make many movies) to appear in your film, then make the best use out of him.

It is another question as to how Rylance was coaxed to appear in this third rate Dirty Harry set in London rip off. I reckon it was a higher than expected tax demand!

Jason Statham plays tough cop Brant who beats up cartoon street thugs as he is in the verge of burnout. He teams up with Porter Nash (Paddy Considine) a gay cop tasked to find a serial killer hell bent on killing cops and boasting about it to a journalist (David Morrissey.)

The killer flamboyantly played by Aiden Gillen is not even kept a secret to the viewer or to Brant who encounter him early on in the film.

As a crime procedural it really fails as the police seem to do nothing to get evidence of any kind to build a case against the main suspect. This is London we are talking about which has more CCTV cameras than anywhere else on the planet.

The film has several subplots that really go nowhere such as a drug addicted policewoman, the grieving cop who lost his wife and the journalist who views the serial killer story as his big break. It really is filler to pad out the main plot.

Statham is onenote as the gruff Brant pretending to be Clint Eastwood.

BLITZ is a film with a plot that's all over the place. Ostensibly a Jason Statham-starring actioner, it opens with one of those 'only in the movies' fight sequences in which the Stath takes down an armed street gang who are busy trying to break into a car. As if to put across the message that this is set in the real world rather than the Hollywoodised action world of, say, THE TRANSPORTER, Statham then has to take a browbeating from his superiors and face up to the consequences of his violent act.

After a time, the plot begins for real, with a crazed psycho cop-killer on the loose. Said killer is played by GAME OF THRONES's Aiden Gillen in the manner of Ledger playing the Joker, full of wisecracks and irritating mannerisms; I'm not a fan of Gillen in such roles, and prefer him more subtle as Littlefinger. Eventually, Statham gets wise to this guy and starts to hunt him down.

The problem with BLITZ is a distinct lack of focus in regards to the plotting. Sometimes, it seems like Statham is a supporting player in his own movie; there's a whole, dragged-out sub-plot involving a female cop by the name of Falls (acted, badly, by Zawe Ashton) who's caught up in her own downward spiral. It has little to do with the serial killer aspect and it goes absolutely nowhere, other than to pad out the running time a little.

There are plus points too - Paddy Considine gives a sensitive turn as a gay cop, and there's a nice line in humour sprinkled through. I appreciated the vigilante-themed ending as well. But this is a film that keeps leading you down dead ends, with frustrating sub-plots going nowhere (another is David Morrissey's journalist, again totally extraneous to the story). It makes you feel like a lot was left on the cutting room floor...

Detective Sergeant Tom Brant (Jason Statham) is a hard cop in southeast London willing take anything including a hockey stick to the bad guys. Cops are being targeted. Sergeant Porter Nash (Paddy Considine) is brought in to head the manhunt. He's ridiculed for being gay but finds a supporter in Brant. The killer makes reporter Dunlop (David Morrissey) his contact. Brant and Nash zero in on Barry "Blitz" Weiss (Aidan Gillen) as their suspect. Brant remembers a run-in with him a year ago.

This is a hard-boiled cop drama. This wants to be a gritty harsh movie. It does come off as another modern grim British TV cop show with bigger actors. Considine fits right in. Statham seems to be itching to be the Transporter. It wouldn't hurt him to play slightly against type especially in a movie which wants to be taken more seriously. I like the grim tone but Statham may be at cross-purposes.