'Welcome to the Punch' - Movie Review

The movie opens with D.I. Max Lewinsky (James McAvoy) managing to catch up to Jacob Sternwood (Mark Strong) and his gang as they make a heist - but he goes in without support (against orders) and is badly injured without stopping Sternwood. The movie then jumps forward three years, with Sternwood's son seriously injured and caught by the police, forcing Sternwood out of hiding. Lewinsky pursues him again, but finds Sternwood may be less corrupt than the system that pays his cheques.

It's a violent movie that spends more time on action and violence and less on character development than it should, but a reasonably intelligent plot - and an assumption that those watching don't need to be led by the nose - makes it a passable watch. McAvoy and Strong are both good. Hardly a great movie, but if you like your crime dramas, there are so very many worse ones out there ...