RocknRolla

This is a typical Guy Ritchie film. With a wide range of characters and some very powerful performances to random shots making you wonder where the story is headed but just in time to converge in one final showdown leaving you with just word.. WOW!! I can't help but compare it to SNATCH..as they are similar in so many ways...but SNATCH was much more intense, funny and a better script.

Some very fine performances from Gerard Butler from 300, Tom Wilkinson from Michael Clayton but what really surprised me was outstanding performance by Toby Kebbell. His subtle dialogue and crazy laughter really spells horror and magic at the same time. The story takes you through the world of mafia and spins all dramatic sequences with blood, deceit and loads of humor. The scene where Gerard and his gang escape from the two Russian militants... that scene made me laugh like crazy.

I just loved this movie and i can't wait to see the sequel.

Whilst RocknRolla shares a number of elements with Guy Ritchie's pervious films "Lock, Stock and Twitter Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch", it doesn't quite have the humour and quotability of his earlier works.

A Stella cast revel in this London Underworld story of drugs, paintings, dodgy property deals and robberies.

With his recent return to the genre with "The Gentlemen", this is well worth checking out if you missed it first time around.

Like other reviewers, I find Guy Ritchie very watchable. His cockney criminals are a delight to watch, all of them killing a human as easily as they might a fly and delivering punchlines all the way. Rirchie's screenplay brims with action and razor sharp dialogue for the first hour, then - very sadly - it loses direction.

The blueprint for ROCKNROLLA was SNATCH (UK, 2000), probably Ritchie's best, most rounded effort, with characters that pop out of the screen.

ROCKNROLLA does not quite match that highly original early Ritchie flick, it is unfortunately too long by easily 20 minutes, and its characters by and large do not stand out as much.

That said, Butler and Hardy make unlikely lovers who double up as criminals, Butler and Thandie have the briefest, least passionate love scene I have watched in some time, a real damp squib, and Tom Wilkinson as the fiendish Lenny Cole, Idris Elba as the ever supportive sidekick to Butler, and Mark Strong as the irrepressible Archy really steal the show.

Great cinematography, action sequences by David Higgs.

At the turn of the century, Guy Ritchie established his reputation with the one-two punch of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch". While bearing the unmistakable influence of Quentin Tarantino, these two crime comedies nevertheless stood out among the scores of imitators.

Branching out, Ritchie next tried something different. Unfortunately, his remake of Lina Wertmüller's "Swept Away" (starring his then-wife Madonna) turned out to be a disaster, both artistically & financially. His follow-up, "Revolver", played more to Ritchie's strengths but it was ultimately sunk by some heady philosophical underpinnings.

Finally, in 2008, Ritchie returned to his bread & butter with "RockNRolla". This tale of high- and low-class gangsters might not have quite the same spark as his earlier efforts but it definitely represented a welcome return to form.

All of the usual ingredients are here: a cleverly constructed plot, visual panache, well-chosen tunes and, perhaps most importantly, a stellar ensemble cast. It's an embarrassment of riches with the likes of Gerard Butler, Thandie Newton, Mark Strong, Idris Elba, Tom Hardy, Tom Wilkinson and so on. Of course, it helps that they're delivering Ritchie's often quotable dialogue.

Overall, the screenplay is characteristically convoluted with plenty of unexpected twists and turns. I won't even bother to try to synopsize the plot other than to say that it involves a lucrative real estate deal that goes awry with potentially deadly consequences. Luckily, the script moves at a brisk pace so its complexities never wear on the viewer.

As I alluded to earlier, the movie is a visual and aural treat. The visuals are consistently vibrant and I have to appreciate some of the soundtrack's deep cuts like "Have Love, Will Travel" by the Sonics and "Funnel of Love" by Wanda Jackson.

Ultimately, "RockNRolla" may not qualify as top tier Guy Ritchie but it's definitely worth watching. Interestingly, Ritchie teased a sequel at the end of the movie but it has yet to materialize. Count me in as someone who'd like to see that happen someday.

I have to admit that I have a soft spot for Guy Ritchie's mockney gangster films. I don't know what it is. I know that they're not very profound and have nothing to say, I know that they're a pure fantasy vision of British crime and I know that if you've seen Lock Stock, you've pretty much seen them all. And yet, as Ritchie returns for a third iteration of the only formula with which he's tasted success , I still find myself walking out of the cinema massively entertained.

RocknRolla does absolutely nothing new. A quick list of things it shares with Lock Stock and Snatch would read thus: fast paced, witty dialogue; complex, interwoven plot threads; central McGuffin driving the mayhem (#1 antique shotguns, #2 huge diamond, #3 a lucky painting); smart, rapid editing; a mountain of Cockney crime stereotypes. Even things such as hard-as-nails Russian henchmen return. It completes the upward curve of scale in Ritchie's crime films: from a rigged card game to a rigged boxing circuit to rigged property development. The crime lords get larger in stature, the sums of money owed have more zeros on the end and the capers required to resolve the situation more grand, but it's still the same concept.

You'd think this was a list of criticisms, and if you found Snatch wearingly familiar you shouldn't need it spelling out that this film won't impress you. Looking for originality? Look elsewhere. RocknRolla may be pushing the formula a little bit, but if you accept that it's still enormous fun. Ritchie's directing is as proficient as ever, it moves at a merry old pace and the plot just about stays on the rails. The characters are endearing and there's plenty of laughs to be had. Other than its dearth of invention, the only real flaw with the film lies in the opening fifteen minutes, where Ritchie sets up the plot strands which will then unravel. Whereas previous films did this in a smooth, unforced way, here Ritchie lathers it with a liberal helping of voice-over narration so there's absolutely no confusion possible as to who is who and what they're after, which on many occasions extends to pointing out the bleeding obvious. Show don't tell- it's the first rule in the book Ritchie! It may be getting to the point where RocknRolla must go down as a guilty pleasure, but guilty pleasures are often the most fulfilling kind. And so it is here.