Guy Richie has turned out the gem of his career with RockNrolla. Perfect cast (Wilkenson should get an award for this one) incredible sound track, and a wild and wicked plot. Unlike some of his others, this one makes it a bit easier to understand the dialects. It was the delight of my movie going month in October when it came out here in the U.S.From reading some of the reviews that pan this movie, it is obvious that they are not familiar with Guy Richie's films, his style and his offbeat humor. It is sort of like licorice; Some people love it some people hate it. But for those of us who have the right mindset for Richie's style of film, this it the best one to come along in a long time.
Gerard Butler's turn in this is hysterically funny and is such a great switch from his role in 300. No type casting trap for Gerry. This guy can play the heck out of any role imaginable. But if the Wild Bunch shows up again in the next Richie film, I hope Gerry is included.
DottyinCA
Riverside, CA
feelings of love or hate!
There is no middleground among people when
it comes to him. Some see him as a ridiculous wanna-be
Scorcesse or DePalma, others see him as a fresh new voice
and vision in cinema for the 21st Century.
I enjoyed this movie and all it's rawness, dark humor,
violence and rollercoaster twists and turns!
Gerard Butler, Idris Elba & their motley crew of low dollar
thugs with ambitions for the bigtime made this movie for me!
Their interplay was priceless against the story's other very
interesting characters. I also love the cracked-out,
devil-may-care, balls-to-the-wall portrayal of the ROCK-N-ROLLA
himself, Johnny Quid, who is one of the main bad guy's stepson
who this whole crazy ride revolves around!--He is a hoot!
Jeremy Piven & Chris "Ludacris" Bridges play his smarmy
record company moguls who get tangled up in this wild web as well!
I don't care what anyone says!---I thought this was brilliant!
Now to prove my point of how Guy Ritchie's work polarizes people...
My mother, who watched this movie with me,
ABSOLUTELY THOUGHT IT WAS TRASH!!
You have to decide this one for yourself...Guy Ritchie makes films for guys about guys, and frankly "my son", this one is loving it...
I say this because there's appalling film critic snobbery surrounding Ritchie and I for one can't stand it. Ok, so "RocknRolla" is not Shakespeare nor David Lean so what! When you sit down to it, you do so with a grin on your puss the size of Britain's National Debt. Why because you just know you're going to spend the next two hours giggling and grimacing (for all the wrong reasons of course) and you're going to be rightly and royally entertained. And bluntly how many British film directors-cum-writers are 'this' good can entertain you 'this' much? In an industry that seems to have lost the knack of actually turning us on, on the strength of "RocknRolla", I for one will be looking out for the Blu Ray box of Guy Ritchie films and not yet another version of Bourne or Aliens (good as they may be).
The story is layered and smart; the dialogue is either crude or ballbreakingly funny or frequently both and the casting is varied and immaculate all of them clearly enjoying themselves. The songs are apt and used sparingly and there's an already classic one-liner that had many of our customers in the shop laugh out loud when we played the CD the other day (dialogue inbetween the music tracks).
The good news for fans is that the BLU RAY version of "RocknRolla" is beautifully filmed and I think actually suits Ritchie's film style to a tee it makes the sharp suits and the London locations shine more. Actor wise "RocknRolla" is crammed full of great cameos and has a lot of classy leading double acts. Tom Wilkinson is the bigwig old-school London criminal Lenny Cole with Mark Strong as Archie his sidekick. Both are typically outstanding. Gerard Butler as One Two and Idris Elba as Mumbles (the drug dealer Stringer Bell in The Wire) play their counterparts the likely lads who get caught up in deals way over their small-time heads. Jimi Mistry is a corrupt London councillor, Jeremy Piven and Ludacris as producers and nightclub owners who can't control Toby Kebbell as the drugged up rock star Johhny Quid (feigning death to up his sales). The girls are all molls, there's the unkillable Russians, the thieving philosophizing junkies, ticket-touting gangsters covered in Bling living in Range Rovers and yobs who talk about art, culture and the beauty of cigarettes as they whack a difficult bouncer over the head with a bin lid....luverly!
I'll freely admit that as a dabbler in screenplays myself, I sat there with a huge streak of jealousy running through me, because there's truly fantastic writing and skill on show here. One example is the scene where Gerard Butler is sat at a dinner table in a posh London restaurant with the corporate lawyer totty that is Thandie Newton. Butler's character clearly fancies her, but suspects she's just 'too' dangerous and out of his league. Slipping the bulging loot bag he's delivering under the table towards her long and unfeasibly delicious legs, he relays how the swag was attained...with a "bit of bother". It then cuts back to the actual robbery which of course goes horribly wrong and then just gets progressively worse not too clever types doing not too clever things. From this hilarious flashback, the movie keeps flicking forward again to their sexually loaded conversation and back again to more carnage with an escalating pumping soundtrack. It's kind of Ritchie's trademark style, but it's so damn good that you don't even notice how cleverly its been worked out and edited together. It's slick stuff and impressively so.
The movie is not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a damn good watch and more importantly wildly entertaining. And come the sly and clever ending, you're left wanting more and there's even a hint of a sequel in the closing credits.
In the vernacular "RocknRolla" is a blinding bit of fun and on Blu Ray looks and sounds like the absolute business. Highly recommended and a job well done.
Read Best Reviews of RocknRolla (2008) Here
This another fantastic movie from a brilliant director. He really got in touch with his roots on this one. The plot and pace of the movie were very similar to Guy Ritchie's earlier work: Lock, Stock and Snatch. If you didn't care for those two, don't bother with this one.Character development is definitely Ritchie's strong suit. Johnny Quid is the alternate universe equivalent to Sid Vicious if Nancy had never existed.
Something that never lacks in a Ska film is the Soundtrack. My God! this is some great music! Using the song Bank Robber by the Clash as Johnny Quid's theme music was dead on.
Hopefully this will be the movie to get Guy Ritchie out of movie jail. Swept Away and Revolver were pretty damn bad. Getting rid of the dead weight in his life has to have helped.
Want RocknRolla (2008) Discount?
This was a clever picture. It had exceptionally strong characters and the actors that played them portrayed them perfectly. Guy Richie has a knack about getting a stella cast for his pictures and he definitely did it in this one. There were no horrible performance's in this picture. There are no dragging scenes, its all constant, fast paced as you follow two different plots in story simultaneously that meet up at the end, which is kind of a who done it.For some reason when Guy Richie comes out with a new movie I always think its going to stink. Every time I am amazed at how good it is. Guy Richie in my eyes is the next Tarantino, I think even better. He is creating the standard for the "New Age Gangster Film". It doesn't have to be violent and bloody to be a great movie and he proves this time and time again.
This in my eyes is a must see. Even if this is not your so called genre, still see it, you will be surprised as well as pleased.
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