RocknRolla

RocknRolla
RocknRolla

After the success of Lock Stock and Snatch, Guy Ritchie went into a bit of a decline – around about the time he married Madonna and started putting her in his films. RocknRolla is his first film post-divorce and though it’s not a complete return to form it’s still entertaining.

As ever, it’s a series of interlinked plots and stories which all wind up affecting each other. It’s twisty and quite clever but simply doesn’t have the punch of the first two films. The main things missing are the clever camerawork and snappy dialogue. The humour’s just not up there either – I’d actually liken it more to the (superior) Layer Cake.

Plot-in-a-nutshell: two robbers end up indebted to a crime lord. They take on a job which pays that debt off… but inadvertently an unknown to them puts them in a bigger pile of **** with the same man. Add a wayward stepson, a dodgy accountant and some Russian gangsters and you have the kind of background you’d expect for a Ritchie film.

As for the cast, they’re all pretty solid and – to me – moderately unknown, a little like the first two films. The only exception is Thandi Newton and I am buggered if I can figure out how anyone can find her attractive. Even less so given that she chain-smokes her way through the movie. Will someone please feed her a large quantity of meat pies before she starves to death?

At two hours it’s pretty long but does keep the interest. However, it’s got a hell of a history to live up to and sadly it just doesn’t quite cut it as a classic. It seems the cast will get another chance, though, as the end credits tell us they’ll all be back in The Real RocknRollas. I’d be prepared to give it a whirl.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x