Even the rock music just seems immature. It's clearly a crutch, because none of these scenes would be cool without a pounding score... This is all the kind of abrasive rock that kids like to annoy their parents.
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.
Runtime: 1 hr 56 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Theatrical Release:Oct 8, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $5,665,302
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.
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Reviews for RocknRolla
Great title for a gangster flick. Too bad that writer-director Guy Ritchie only partially realizes the sizzling potential.
The actual plot is so uselessly convoluted you'd get a headache just reading it -- but you might want to pull out the Advil anyway, given Ritchie's reliance on flashy editing, a blasting soundtrack and fetishized gunplay.
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.
[Ritchie's] latest effort has the sprawling cast of characters and all the convolutions you'd expect, but none of the wit or joy necessary to distract from its shallowness.
If, as his critics contend, Ritchie is just making the same movie over and over again, at least he's getting better at it.
Ritchie's latest homoerotic guy bonding homicidal spree, might be termed a London mafia musical fueled by global capitalism's shaky economic indicators, going toe to toe with the underground urban economy's crimelords in cutthroat competition. Literally.
RocknRolla is a well-acted and attitudinal action movie, a return to Ritchie's trademark 'Mockney' style, which takes amusing and twisted turns.
Perhaps Ritchie has improved over the past 10 years -- or perhaps any movie would look good after the execrable Swept Away and Revolver -- because Ritchie's latest gangland comedy RocknRolla is far and away his best work.
It's like a lumpy, overworked, useless 'objet' that someone who doesn't know you very well might give you as a gift, a thing that sits around the house serving no unearthly purpose other than reminding you, none too subtly, that it's completely hollow.
RocknRolla is an invigorating, grimly hilarious return to old Ritchie sensibilities, the director mounting a slingshot crime saga with more gravitas and hangdog heroics than previously seen.
You'd think that being married to Madonna, Guy Ritchie would have picked up on the value of occasionally reinventing oneself.
If nothing else, it's two hours of fun, unadulterated entertainment like the kind only Guy Ritchie can deliver ... requires a small amount of patience before its second half pay-off.
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.
RocknRolla often feels more like a parody of a Guy Ritchie film than a real movie.
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January 17, 2009:
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January 17, 2009:
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