You can say this much for Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla: it isn't as bad as his last two films.
RocknRolla (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:11
Fresh:7
Rotten:4
Average Rating:5.8/10
Consensus: Mixed reviews for Guy Ritchie's return to his London-based cockney wideboy gangster movie roots, but most agree, it's a step in the right direction following two major turkeys.
Theatrical Release:05-09-2008
Synopsis: Guy Ritchie returns to form with this cockney crime caper starring Gerard Butler and Tom Wilkinson. Lenny Cole (Wilkinson) is a bungling London crime boss who calls the shots in London's... Guy Ritchie returns to form with this cockney crime caper starring Gerard Butler and Tom Wilkinson. Lenny Cole (Wilkinson) is a bungling London crime boss who calls the shots in London's underworld. We learn all about Lenny from Archie (Mark Strong)--his second in command--who serves as the film's sly narrator. When a wealthy Russian property dealer by the name of Uri (Karel Roden) looks to Lenny for help on a major new deal, Lenny is eager to assist (for a very large fee, of course). Uri agrees to pay, and as a show of faith, he insists that Lenny borrow his "lucky painting." Uri then asks his accountant, Stella (Thandie Newton), to transfer the money to Lenny, but things quickly go awry when two crooks known as Mumbles (Idris Elba) and One Two (Butler) intercept the money before it reaches him. To make matters worse, the lucky painting has mysteriously been stolen, and the number one suspect is a crack-addicted pop star, Johnny Quid, who is presumed dead. Violent hijinks ensue as Lenny desperately tries to locate the painting, Uri calls in some sadistic thugs to recover his money, and Johnny Quid suddenly resurfaces. Men are battered with golf clubs, fed to crawfish, and attacked with machetes, and a surprise twist ending neatly ties up the whole bloody mess. Fans of Ritchie will likely be very pleased to see him return to his SNATCH-style of filmmaking. ROCKNROLLA has the same frenetic, humorous edge as the film that made him famous, though critics might complain that this particular style is starting to look a little dusty. Regardless, ROCKNROLLA features many fine performances, and once you get past the rather slow beginning, it kicks off into an entertaining and amusing romp. [More]
Starring: Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Thandie Newton, Jeremy Piven
Starring: Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Thandie Newton, Jeremy Piven, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Mark Strong, Idris Elba, Tom Hardy, Toby Kebbell
Director: Guy Ritchie
Director: Guy Ritchie
Screenwriter: Guy Ritchie
Producer: Joel Silver, Guy Ritchie, Susan Downey, Steve Clark-Hall
Composer: Steve Isles
Studio: Warner Bros.
Reviews for RocknRolla
I mean, Mr Ritchie: this genra: it's ova. I mean, doing yet anotha stinka of a drama about the mee-lee-a of the ersatz London gangsta? You're taking the piss - intcha?
Ritchie has crammed RocknRolla with innumerable homoerotic lads’-mag jokes. He has probably calculated that if the film fails on the high street, he could feasibly relaunch it as late-night gay cabaret.
Wading through this stuff is akin to peeping through one's fingers at a retired, punch-drunk boxer climbing into the ring, or a recidivist junkie ripping out their naltrexone implants.
Ritchie’s film is arguably his most entertaining to date. With its cheeky wit, non-PC provocations, cock-eyed class-consciousness and cheerful irreverence it could be the closest thing to Ealing comedy we’re offered these days.
RocknRolla isn't as jammed with visual pyrotechnics as Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Smoking Barrel (1998), but that's OK, because with anything more happening, the movie could induce motion sickness.
Ritchie whisks you along on a whirlwind tour, but he's not averse to putting on the brakes long enough to admire some of his favorite attractions.
The good news about RockNRolla is that it more or less erases the tainted memories of Swept Away, and the nearly incoherent Revolver, and marks Ritchie's return to the form of the 1998 Lock, Stock and its 2000 follow-up Snatch.
The violence is idiotic and brutal (the story is just idiotic), but it's also so noncommittal that it doesn't offend. Like the filmmaking itself, the violence has no passion, no oomph, no sense of real or even feigned purpose.
Guy Ritchie returns with a vengeance in a terrifically funny and convoluted crime tale.
Guy Ritchie bounces back to top form with RocknRolla, a cleverly constructed, sensationally stylish and often darkly hilarious seriocomic caper.
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