RocknRolla (2008)

"RocknRolla" is the fifth Guy Ritchie movie I have seen, preceded by "Snatch", "Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels", "Revolver" and "Sherlock Holmes".  Ritchie definitely has his own vision and style of directing, and if you take his movies chronologically, "RnR" is clearly a natural progression and refinement of his abilities.

Admittedly, "Lock Stock" and "Snatch" were pretty similar movies. A crazy twisting story about some crooks in London, and everything winds up colliding upon itself in the end. "RocknRolla" is the same thing, but a bit more mature from Ritchie's standpoint.

Gerard Butler and Idris Elba play "One-Two" and "Mumbles", two medium-level crooks looking to make a big splash. To fully describe the details of their plan would really involve giving away the whole plot, so just know that it involves a crooked crime boss, a crooked Russian real estate dealer, a crooked accountant, a drugged-up rockstar, and a lucky piece of art.

The story may be a bit convoluted. I didn't fully understand all of what was going on, I didn't always get the character's motivations for acting a certain way; I did, however, understand that that was sort of the point. Each character is mostly out for themselves, willing to use and manipulate others for their own gain. The trick is figuring out who is manipulating, who is being manipulated, and who thinks they're smarter than the rest.

I like Guy Ritchie, I've liked all the movies I've seen from him, and I'll continue to enjoy his work. He has grown as a director since his early work, and hopefully he will continue to grow and not just put out the same thing over and over.

 

 

On the [Celluloid Hero] scale, "RocknRolla" gets a 6 out of 10.

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