RockNRolla

So I gave in to all the hype and went to see this last night, billed as Guy Ritchie's come back and has seen great reviews from the papers so I went expecting big things.

Guy Richie the man who brought us greats such as Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch had been seen to dip in form with the release of Revolver (I thought was a fantastic film) which was absolutely slated by every review I read, maybe people just didn't get it?

With RocknRolla... I came out of the cinema thinking it was a good film and not a great film, I was expecting more. I think the main problem was in comparison to previous Guy Richie films it wasn't gritty,original or cockney enough to measure up against Lock Stock or Snatch and just wasn't clever or entertaining enough to measure up to Revolver.

The storyline is based around Lenny Cole and old skool gangster and somewhat property developer who has a crooked councilor in his back pocket in order to get what he wants, a Russian called Uri who's likeness is that of Roman Ambramovich is uncanny, Uri's sexy and crooked accountant Stella, three cheeky cockneys called One-Two, Mumbles and Handsome Bob and the crackhead rockstar Jonny Quid.

Lenny is to arrange planning permission for Uri to build in the centre of London for the sum of seven million Euro's, but as the money is stolen twice during transfer to Lenny, Uri becomes suspicions of Lenny's loyalty and that of his accountant Stella, who is arranging the theft of the money and getting One-Two, Mumbles and Handsome Bob to do her dirty work. As a part of the deal Uri loans his "lucky painting" to Lenny until the deal is sealed and somehow the painting is stolen from Lenny's house by Jonny Quid (who had faked his own death in order to sell more records and become a real "rocknrolla". In true Guy Ritchie style all of the charaters get their wires crossed with each other and end up looking for the painting, stealing each others money and a lot of them get shot.

I think my favourite part of the film had to be Jonny Quid playing the piano explaining how a cigarette box is labeled with royalty and appeal on one side then other the truth is known that it will eventually kill you, but you really need to see the film to understand it.

There are comparisons to draw from Guy Ritches previous films, the Russians who just won't die liken the similar store of "Boris the Bullet dodger" from Snatch, but I didn't feel like the characters were real enough or rough enough to play real gangsters. The actor who played Lenny Cole just didn't seem nasty enough for the role, he seemed more like an old business man not someone who drowns his victims in pools of crayfish!

Lenny Cole



It's a similar story with One-Two, Mumbles and Handsome Bob they are just too polished, not cockney enough, not tough enough and not gangster enough. The story seemed to drag though the first hour and it was just too clean to be a gangster movie.

One-Two & Mumbles



On the flip side of the coin (excuse the pun) Jonny Quid did an excellent job of acting like a crackhead junkie with a creative mind, donning rockstar shades in almost every scene and carrying a pencil with a stanley blade in it at all times made him a dangerous and volatile character to be around at anytime, this was certainly demonstrated when he beat a doorman into a bloody mess.

Jonny Quid



A good film but not a great film, but still good enough to make me want to go see the next instalment...