49
Metascore
16 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 83The PlaylistOliver LytteltonThe PlaylistOliver LytteltonFor 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.
- 80EmpireDan JolinEmpireDan JolinA confident, ambitious and action-rich Brit thriller, albeit one whose characters and clarity suffer from the frantic intensity of its pacing.
- 60Total FilmEmma DibdinTotal FilmEmma DibdinThere’s an emotional vacuum at its centre but Welcome To The Punch is an adrenalin shot to the heart of the Brit-crime genre.
- 60VarietyGuy LodgeVarietyGuy LodgeA proficient but personality-free policer that demands little of either its audience or its enviable best-of-British cast, this simplistic urban morality tale miscasts the appealing James McAvoy as one good cop whose dogged pursuit of Mark Strong’s alpha criminal only uncovers the rot within police ranks.
- 60The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisThere 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.
- 40The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawIt runs out of steam, with plot revelations visible from a mile away and a bit of a plausibility gap.
- 40Time OutTime OutFavoring style over substance isn’t a mortal sin, but Creevy isn’t as enthrallingly slick as compatriot Guy Ritchie, nor does he have anything like the "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" auteur’s feel for Britain’s criminal class.
- 40Village VoiceVillage VoiceWhen bullets aren't flying, the movie offers yesterday's goods in shiny new packaging.
- 38Slant MagazineSlant MagazineThe sheer wastefulness of Eran Creevy's Welcome to the Punch is off-putting enough, but the film is also falsely painted-up as a crime epic.