RocknRolla

Plot synopsis:
Lenny Cole (Wilkinson) is a crime boss who calls the shots in London's underworld and real estate market. We learn all about Lenny from Archy (Strong) his second in command who serves as the film's narrator. When a wealthy Russian property dealer by the name of Yuri Omovich (Roden) looks to Lenny for help on a major new deal, Lenny is eager to assist (for a very large fee, of course). Yuri agrees to pay, and as a show of faith, he insists that Lenny borrow his "lucky" painting. Yuri then asks his accountant, Stella (Newton), to transfer the money to Lenny, but Stella arrangers for a band of thieves known as the The Wild Bunch consisting of One Two (Butler) and Mumbles (Elba) to intercept the money before it reaches him and split the cash among the three of them. To make matters worse, the lucky painting has mysteriously been stolen, and the number one suspect is Lenny's estranged stepson, crack-addicted rock star Johnny Quid, who is presumed dead. As Lenny desperately tries to locate the painting, Yuri calls in sadistic henchmen to recover his money.In an attempt to find Johnny, Lenny and Archy enlist his former record producers Mickey (Ludacris) and Roman (Piven) to track him down or else their concerts and clubs will be shut down. Meanwhile, Handsome Bob (Hardy) is distraught on the night before his court case, he's scheduled to do a five year prison stretch. One Two organizes a party for Bob. On the way to the party, One Two tries to cheer Bob up to no avail. Bob then comes out to One Two, admitting to having a crush on One Two. One Two is disgusted, but thinking that it's Bob's last night as a free man, asks him what exactly he'd like to do. The next day, One Two refuses to attend Bob's court hearing to the surprise of Mumbles. One Two uncomfortably tries to explain that something happened between him and Bob the previous night, when Mumbles tells him that everyone knows that Bob is gay.When One Two, Mumbles, and Bob try to steal a second load of Yuri's money they are wounded and chased by Yuri's persistent hired mercenaries who engage them in a shootout and a lengthy foot chase. They nevertheless deliver the money to Stella as they did before. By this time Yuri has grown impatient and come to suspect that Lenny is involved in the theft of the cash and his painting. Yuri has Lenny viciously beaten, demanding that the painting be returned and the money delivered. Two item peddling junkies manage to steal the painting from Johnny and sell it to the Wild Bunch, and One Two promptly gives it to Stella after they have sex. Mickey and Roman find Johnny and call Archy to have him delivered. After capturing the three, Archy and Lenny's men go to apprehend One Two who is already in the hands of Yuri's vengeful mercenaries. Archy and his men kill the mercenaries and kidnap One Two as well as Mumbles and Handsome Bob who arrived to deliver the name of a much talked about police informant inside the London underworld.Yuri arrives at Stella's house to seal their arrangements while also asking her to marry him, as he has been smitten with her for a long time. Immediately after asking, Yuri spots his lucky painting in Stella's living room. After being asked how long she's had it, Stella says she's had it for years, not knowing it's actually Yuri's. Feeling betrayed and enraged, Yuri orders his associate inside to kill Stella.Meanwhile, Archy brings Johnny, the Wild Bunch, Mickey, and Roman to Lenny's warehouse where Johnny begins to verbally provoke Lenny. Lenny then shoots Johnny in the stomach before he finishes telling Archy that Lenny is the famous rat. Lenny then orders Johnny, Roman, and Mickey escorted downstairs while demanding that the Wild Bunch to tell him where the money is. Handsome Bob offers Archy the documents in his jacket pocket which reveals the informant, code named "Sidney Shaw," to be Lenny. Lenny had arranged with the police to give up many of his associates for prison at any given time in exchange for his freedom. One Two, Mumbles, and Archy himself are among the people Lenny has ratted out over the years, and Archy had served over four years in jail because of this. With this new information brought to light, Archy frees the Wild Bunch and kills Lenny.In the meantime, Johnny, Mickey, Roman and two of Lenny's men are in an elevator on their way to a spot where Lenny's gangsters will execute them and dispose of their bodies. Johnny informs Mickey and Roman in detail about how they will be killed along with him. This prompts Lenny's men to act prematurely, but thanks to Johnny's warning Mickey and Roman react in time, and after a struggle manage to kill the gangsters. When they make it to the ground floor, Johnny kills two more guards waiting outside the lift. The Wild Bunch save them from the last remaining henchman (One-Two knocks him out from behind) and they all escape.Some time later, Archy picks up a rehabilitated but still eccentric Johnny Quid from the hospital. Archy offers Yuri's lucky painting to Johnny as a peace offering and "welcome home present," which Johnny accepts. Archy reveals to Johnny that obtaining the painting "cost a very wealthy Russian an arm and a leg." The film closes with Johnny proclaiming that with his new freedom, he will do what he couldn't do before: "become a real RocknRolla". During the end credits, it is revealed that One Two and Bob had danced together on the night before Bob's court hearing.

Tags: comedy, cult, violence, flashback, psychedelic, entertaining

Review:
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.
The movie as a whole maybe be a bit of a head scratcher here and there but the pay off is good and the idea is a bit of a parody of itself which is what makes this film so fun.What Ritchie accomplishes though, in the same way he has with his past successful productions is putting together an extremely diverse and yet correlating cast.
The cast is amazing, Gerard Butler gives a formidable performance, Thandie Newton also very good, Tom Wilkinson flawless as always and the secondary roles from Toby Kebbell (Johnny Quid), Idris Elba (Mumbles) and Mark Strong (Archie) gave the movie a very good support.
Writer/director Guy Ritchie, who at first garnered countless approval for his vicious, hyper-stylized tales of dirty deeds in the British underground, had found the critical tides turning in recent years after the succession of universally panned Swept Away to widely baffling Revolver, begging the question as to whether Ritchie's cinematic genius had been limited to his initial films.
After a relatively slow start, serving mostly to set up the convoluted array of characters and plot points (the central Maguffin this time being a 'lucky' Russian painting which goes missing) the film takes off at the frenzied pace those familiar with Ritchie's work would expect.
Mark Strong delivers harried menace and perfect comic deadpan as Wilkinson's right hand man, crafting another memorable Ritchie reference with the "Archie slap", and Idris Elba and Tom Hardy are fittingly hilarious as One-Two's bumbling fellow hard men Mumbles and Handsome Bob. Finally, Toby Kebbell eerily essays the most commanding character on screen as allegedly deceased rocker Johnny Quid.
I had been a huge fan of Guy Richie's "Snatch" and "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels." Then he married Madonna and made a few bum movies, especially "Revolver." Well rest easy, Guy Richie Fans, the man who made the two great movies I listed above is back and funnier, more intense, and a better writer/director than ever.
While seeing the dark knight a trailer for a new guy ritchie film came up.I wasn't particularly swayed too much by this trailer but considering the summer period was almost over and we film lovers now have to survive the cheap horror winter season, Rocknrolla seemed like a nice surprise.So i saw it last night.And, to the tell the truth, i absolutely loved it!
Characters are The Wild Bunch with Gerard Butler, Thandie Newton the accountant, Tom Wilkinson the gangster.I could say more but there are a lot.The film to start i found was rather complicated but as time went on i got used to all the characters and they're relationships etc etc.It's filled with some great top notch sequences but my favourite and the crowds favourite was "The Invincible Russians" Overall this is a great film and breaks the dead lock of cheesy cheap films we get around this time of year.go see it now!.
Throughout his career, director Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Lock Stock and two Smokin' Barrels) has slowly gathered a cult-like following, ensuring that his movies, be they good or bad, will always earn a few dollars from loyal fans.
Providing monologue after brilliant monologue, Quid becomes a character of classic cool, embodying olden day suave with modern day style, a true to time Rocknrolla.As with every one of Ritchie's gifts to the silver screen, the subtle yet slick script throws the few negative aspects of the movie to the backburner, leaving only pure gold to shimmer and shine.
Unfortunately for the masses that truly enjoy a movie with an intelligent script, box office numbers generally speak poorly for Guy Ritchie's films on our side of the pond, his movies usually making no more than a few hundred thousand dollars, only to become cult hits once released on DVD.Viewers may be shocked to see Gerard Butler (best known for his overly masculine performance as King Leonidas in 300) hidden amongst an amazing yet unknown cast, with each actor holding their own and providing more than authentic performances.
It is beyond sad, the least can be said, to see Chris Bridges  A.K.A. Ludicrous (2 Fast 2 Furious)  and Jeremey Pivens (Smokin' Aces) failing miserably in their attempt to act in brief yet important cameo performances, also singled out as the only two American actors in the film, their "talent" shadowed and overcast by the nobodies surrounding them.To those readers out there who are contemplating seeing this not-quite-so-common piece of theatre in the form of British Cinema, it is best for you to know there are many worse things you can do.
The press and the film critics seemingly revelling in giving the bright director a good old cockney kicking after putting him on a pedestal with the success of the Lock, Stock and Snatch movies.
He did to some extent (and not necessarily to his credit) create a distinctive genre of British film with Smoking Barrels and Snatch and, in the sense that this is almost identical to those earlier films, RocknRolla it is certainly a return to something.I'm a Londoner; my parents were Cockney and my grand-parents were Cockney (in fact my Auntie Elsie lived only a few streets away from Violet Kray), and as such I have always thought of Ritchie's Mockney gangster genre as the rather sad fantasy of a bored and insecure middle-class public schoolboy sitting in his 'dorm' reading "A Profession of Violence" and wishing that Mad Frankie Fraser was his dad and that Frankie would turn up in the senior common room one day and give a good slapping to all those rotten school bullies.I've never found any of Ritchie's films funny and I certainly didn't laugh at RocknRolla.
The Formalist style of film making is clearly seen in this film with the hard core action and violence, and a scene where someone finds a creative use for a pencil (by stabbing it in someone's neck) but it is not as violent as I had hoped it to be, and since this is formalism style of film making the violence and action had to look cool as opposed to being real, which is probably why when Johnny Quid stabbed the guy in the neck like twelve times with a pencil there was no blood or markings, but really I was too busy going "what the hell?" to notice.The film's story was a little bit clearer than Ritchie's next film ("Sherlock Holmes") but there is no development of the story or plot but of the characters themselves.
I'm surprised this film has such high ratings on IMDb. Weak disjointed story which went off at a tangent and was not remotely clever (unlike Snatch and Lock Stock); poor dialogue that was neither witty nor funny; dull characters - none of whom were interesting or convincing; exposition galore (mostly via an annoying voice over); bad acting by some of the cast, not very funny (apart from a couple of chuckles).
It's maybe unfair to expect that this film would be on par or even exceed guy Ritchie's 2 finest achievements in lock stock and snatch, but it doesn't even come close which is a shame because i really expected it to be another masterpiece.The storyline isn't very interesting at all, most of the film is just plain boring and you don't really share any emotions with any of the characters like you usually would in Ritchie's movies.
it has some good points and some of the scenes are entertaining and amusing like you would expect but these are very few and far between to keep you enthralled for the duration.Thandie Newton is very nice to look at and Gerard butler does a solid enough performance without being spectacular but the rest of the cast are easily forgettable which is easy to see when most scenes have no substance to keep you wanting more.let's hope Ritchie's next chapter goes back to what he does best, we know he's capable of making amazing films so here's hoping for a quick recovery to make up for this lacklustre effort..
However, "RocknRolla" contains mediocre acting, mediocre action, horrendous dialogue, a terribly pompous script, and uninspired direction.The way this film is structured, I wouldn't be surprised if Guy Ritchie fancies himself as the English Tarantino or Paul Thomas Anderson; after all, the massive amount of characters and subplots are both reminiscent of the aforementioned writer/directors.
But let's get to the point.Starting up, I'm a big fan of Guy Ritchie's work ('Snatch.' is one of my favorite movies) and so I was kind of expectant with this, since his last works weren't successful: the misunderstood 'Revolver' and the awful 'Swept Away'.
However it all feels a bit lazy, the script and plot are just a rushed rehash of Lock Stock and Layer Cake, some of the characters and "twists" are just there to fill in and make no sense, and add nothing, and ultimately if you are a fan of this genre of film you will feel let down.A shame for the public, and a shame for the good cast, I think!If you haven't seen Lock Stock or Layer Cake, you'll probably enjoy it more!!!.
Classic Guy Ritchie with a robust script and some great performances.So why didn't it work as well as "Lock, stock and two smoking barrels" or "Snatch"?
The film has some amusing moments, but these are rarely down to the intelligence of the dialogue.RocknRolla feels like a dumbed-down, diluted take on the genre that Ritchie created with the release of Lock, Stock and the result is a parody which sacrifices many of the qualities that made the director an overnight success.
He tries to figure out who stole it and eventually figures out it was his junkie stepson and now he hires some people willing to do whatever it takes to get it back.This movie was great definitely one of my favorite from Guy. I did not much care for lock stock and two smoking barrels but I loved snatch and this..
Almost everything about this movie is about guy ritchie....The problem with that is that it makes watching this movie very risky.The main issues are..His style has barely changed across the years.And his movie are all about the ending which normally culminates in comedy of errors and chances and twists of fate.After seeing so much ( or so few of his movies) there is no doubt that every Guy Ritchie movie i have seen has been less pleasurable than the earlier one.The good part though is that my mind seems to have a hit a plateau instead of continuing downwards.Which brings us to the real risk.After sitting through 90 minutes of his movies, seeing event after event of randomness and character building you wait in anticipation for the ending which you may hate you may love but will definitely send you in a tizzy.Here however you have the most sedate guy ritchie ending to date.Its almost as if nothing happened and leaves you feeling quite disappointed.This movie has its memorable moments as all his films do but these few and far between, once again i would like to stress how much guy ritchies movies are about the end.The other guy ritchie traits such as top notch acting direction camera-work background score are all there.
But these have been of such high standards in all films that only a move in the other direction would merit any surprise or mention.As a standalone film this would have been a merely a decent film.If this is your first guy ritchie film than you would enjoy it more but its recommended that you see snatch or lock stock to be really blown away as this may dull your experience of watching those masterpieces.From the number of times I've mentioned guy ritchies name you can see that this movie is quite like putting all your eggs in one basket except that its rare that you come out merely with what you started when you play such a high risk game.in this case ill consider myself lucky that i came out not feeling completely disappointed.however i would advise that you treat this movie with caution and set your expectations right when you watch it.-s typical guy ritchie, lacklustre ending.+/-s typical guy ritchie.+s typical guy ritchie which means technically superb.total 5/10 (factoring in the fact that it fell below my expectations, however most people will take one look at the directors name and see this movie hence expectations cannot be ignored, proceed with caution)..
A number of years ago young director Guy Ritchie changed mobster movies with his infectious LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS and that twisted underbelly of London's crime population is back in full force with ROCKNROLLA.
Ritchie's style - mixing rapid action, flashback explanations, loopy violence, wildly imaginative characters, and a near non-understandable collection of various accents from the British Isles coupled with an integral musical score - makes this tale of deceit, desperation, intrigue, vice in all forms, low on the food chain criminals at service in the line of polished professionals - a fast paced highly entertaining movie.
The overall feeling in Lock Stock and Snatch was that the bad guys had the power, and were scary, whereas RockNRolla displays that the bad guys are pussies, and can be messed about with little consequence.Some performances in this film help bring it up slightly - Mark Strong and Toby Kebbell are both brilliant in their own way, and fit their characters uncannily, saving the casting director any further blushes.The storyline, as would be expected in most Ritchie gangster films, is complicated, with the difference this time being that it was unnecessarily complicated.
There may be only a few surefire things when it comes to movie-going these days, but one of the surest is that, in any film written and directed by Guy Ritchie, your mind will have to race mighty fast just to keep up with all the characters and plot conniptions that will go speeding by you through the course of the story.His latest film, "RocknRolla" is clearly no exception to that rule.
The movie contains virtually all of the patented Ritchie trademarks familiar to us from such works as "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and the truly incomprehensible "Snatch" (though viewers should know that "RocknRolla" is nowhere near as complicated as that film).
mostly the violence is toned down quiet a lot, and Tom Wilkinson's character is nowhere as vicious as the "boss".but what this feature retains and even improve are the social-humor gags.too bad that the whole plot seems to play around an "inside joke" regarding big city corruption...but do not get me wrong, there are plenty of situations where i was laughing hard.now, i have seen all the movies with Thandie Newton , something i really like about her "on screen" presence.
but this movie does have a lot of action,, fine women , great plot, interesting plot twists,, surprise ending,, everything that you come to expect from a Guy Ritchie film.
Uri uses corrupt accountant Stella (Thandie Newton) who in turn double-crosses Uri by getting One-Two (Gerard Butler) and the Wild Bunch to steal the money.Guy Ritchie is returning to his London gangster movie roots.
Heralding RocknRolla as a return to the smart, fast paced, witty form Guy Ritchie successfully developed with Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch might be a tad generous, but it's definitely a solid comeback after the turds he dropped with Revolver and Swept Away.The quick cuts, clever scene transitions, snappy dialog and oddball characters are all in place (keep an eye out for what has to be cinema's fastest depiction of a sex scene), but manage to get bogged down somewhat by a script that tries to be a little too clever.
There are so many characters and so much going on in "RocknRolla" (like in any other Guy Ritchie movie, except the dreadful "Swept Away"), that after just one viewing, I wouldn't be able to tell what the plot is exactly about (if anything).
The only thing that was a little screwy was the plot, but other than that I thought the dialogue acting more than made up for the structure of the movie.Gerard Butler played a real "good guy criminal", thandie newton was very sensual w/o being a tramp, Tom Wilkinson made a perfect haughty, loudmouthed mob boss and Toby Kebbel made one hell of a rock and rolla...giving the movie a very distinct taste.Now a lot of American WT morons out there with short attention spans probably got bored with "all the talking".
There's a lot of faces from all the modern good gangster flicks turn up.This not Revolver (i'm must say I enjoyed Revolver) this is more Mr Ritchie's earlier films Lock Stock and Snatch and like Matthew Vaughn's Layer Cake.Great camera work and fantastic score.
RocknRolla is a Guy Ritchie film through and through, if you've seen one of his others like Lock, Stock or Snatch you've pretty much seen them all.
Guy Ritchie returns to familiar territory following some less than kind comments from the critics and it's good to see that he hasn't simply settled for more of the same style of film as Lock Stock and Snatch.
RocknRolla is a return to the familiar territory of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch for director Guy Ritchie and reminds us why he was hailed as such a talent at the time of their release.
RocknRolla is like a movie-comeback film by Guy Ritchie.