This is the first of his cartoons to work better as a movie than as a fashion spread.
RocknRolla (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:135
Fresh:80
Rotten:55
Average Rating:5.9/10
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
Ritchie has brought back that amazingly gritty, yet extremely funny British crime flick that everyone deserves and loves.
Better just to sit back and enjoy RocknRolla for what it is: a fast-paced amoral joyride that’s more interested in the absurdities of violent criminality than the complications of real life.
The words are catchy and the beat keeps you awake, though all of it quickly fades.
For his fifth feature film, Guy Ritchie happily ignores his previous two misfires and goes back to what he does best, making dime-store, knockoff pulp thrillers.
It seems that 'two smoking barrels' was more than enough. Three is pushing it. Or, as the newly-separated spouse Madonna may have said, 'Enough already.'
Decidedly darker than previous Ritchie offerings, Rocknrolla struts and preens like a chuffed chart-topper with a debilitating drug habit should.
The ensemble cast of his latest is so massive, they can't all be done justice and by the time the story's come to a close it's a bit of an untidy mess, even if all the pieces, technically, have been accounted for.
Ritchie's characters are glamorous underworld fantasies, but he's incapable of making them resonate; to stand for something.
The film has the sprawl of a hardboiled novel, but without the richness of character that the best of that genre has to offer.
Promoted as a story of 'sex, thugs and rock'n'roll,' this highly stylised mobster movie couldn't even be remotely confused with the real thing.
It is perhaps high time for us to just come out and finally admit to the world that director Guy Ritchie is not a very good filmmaker.
Part of the problem is that the plot is just too cluttered. There are far too many characters and sub-plots jostling for attention.
Guy Ritchie returns to form and whether a homophobe or not (as his soon to be ex-brother-in-law claims), this is the movie of a man who certainly appreciates the male form.
It doesn't offer viewers anything more than the sight of a talented director treading water with a story he seems to have little interest in telling.
It's a sad experience to watch RocknRolla, the obituary for the Guy Ritchie brand of English gangster flicks.
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