I put this on specifically because it starred James McAvoy, who up until now has reliably turned up in unique and daring films. After viewing this I am fearful that the interesting part of his career might be waning, because this production very much seems like a paycheck film. Due to the extremely competent acting and cinematography, the film is quite watchable, but the essential story has been done a zillion times before. None of the material is original at all. It's really a case of, "Nothing to see here folks, just move along"; however, I don't completely feel that I totally wasted my time, because, while totally conventional and derivative, it is very slickly produced. Watching this still qualifies as a minor mistake when I consider that there are only so many hours in a day and certainly so many better films out there. From now on, like Samuel Jackson, I'm afraid McAvoy being on the bill might no longer be a useful shortcut for choosing a film. I'm not writing him off just yet, but this particular role was no acting risk and can't be viewed as a good omen. So, in short, pure cinematic junk food. Reasonably tasty cinematic junk food, but forgettable and empty nevertheless.

When you look back in film history, there have been numerous great British made thrillers and gangster movies. This missed the boat and will never catch it.What we have is a production with a tick list that has a mark against some notable boxes: good actors, rich settings, interesting lighting, fine directing etc. They forgot though about the screenplay which really is poor. Some clichés, a lot of nonsense and nothing big or clever.James McAvoy really needs to speak to his voice trainer, his accent was appalling. A fine actor reduced to looking out of place here.Apart from one shoot-out in the last quarter, I really don't have anything much good to say of the action which was mostly dull. Some say it is supposedly influenced by Hong Kong gangster work, this doesn't seem to pay off or understand the genre. I've watched lots of those movies, this doesn't cut the mustard.There's no point saying much more about this, just put it to the side and move on. Very disappointing.

WELCOME TO THE PUNCH is a monumental failure of a film, even worse than the recent SWEENEY remake directed by Nick Love. The blame for this film's failure can be laid at the door of writer/director Eran Creevy, a guy who displays a fundamental lack of understanding when it comes to action direction and indeed writing a decent script.Essentially this is a crime film that sees the central characters investigating a flimsy, over-contrived back story that actually has nothing to do with any of them. This story - a predictable mystery with all of the non-surprising surprises you'd expect - is so trivial as to be barely worth writing down, and yet they manage to drag it out to feature length thanks to plenty of padding and unnecessarily filler material. The action, when it hits, is ludicrous, either inappropriate slow motion or random "pop up and shoot" bad guy moments, like in the laughable climax.The direction is equally poor, with Creevy making the bad decision of over-utilising the 'teal effect' for this film. This is where the entire film is tinted blue and orange, and it's such a cliché that I can't believe directors are still incorporating it into their movies. It makes for a muted, artificial look that dragged my enjoyment of the film down even further. It's a pity that a decent cast has been wasted in this non-starter of a film, with reliable performances from James McAvoy and Mark Strong as the leads, alongside David Morrissey and Peter Mullan; Jason Flemyng and Elyas Gabel provide cameo appearances but are equally wasted. And, indeed, the whole thing is a monumental waste of time.

I've been waiting to see 'Welcome to the Punch' ever since I heard about it (and managed to miss its cinema release). Mark Strong is such a talented actor. I've seen him in a few films which weren't very good, yet his performance has made it worthwhile. Then you have James McAvoy, who always turns in a great performance no matter what he's in. How could I lose? I did. Welcome to the Punch is billed as 'Britain's answer to Heat.' If that's the best we can do, I think we should let Hollywood win on this one. This is nothing like Heat. Never before have so many talented - British - actors been assembled and produced something so average.I won't say it's bad, just totally mediocre. It's about policeman, James McAvoy, seeking revenge on the gangster, Mark Strong, who shot him during a previous robbery. Nothing special plot-wise, but with such a good cast you should expect them to make something more out of it. However, the best part of the film was the way it's filmed. London has never looked so cool and stylish, plus it seems to be shot using some sort of blue/green filter to give it all an ultra-cool look.If you really want to see another British gangster movie then this one isn't bad. Then again, perhaps it's worse than bad - it's disappointing.http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/