Film Review

04 December 2008 00:01 BST

RocknRolla

Directed by Guy Ritchie, out September 5th, in cinemas, starring Gerard Butler, Thandie Newton, Tom Wilkinson, Toby Kebbell, Mark Strong, running time 114mins.

In a nutshell…

Guy's back with guns, guitars and girls

What's it all about?

One Two (Butler) and Mumbles (Idris Elba), leading members of London low-life syndicate the Wild Bunch, manage to recover the money they owe to Old School mob boss Lenny Cole (Wilkinson), thanks to the crafty dealings of good-girl-gone-bad Stella (Newton). But soon the pair find themselves embroiled in the clash between Lenny and Russian oligarch Uri (Karel Roden), with the latter decidedly unhappy at the theft of his beloved painting – but what does RocknRolla and smack addict Johnny Quid (Kebbell) have to do with it?



Who's in it?

Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) announced the arrival of an exciting new voice in British filmmaking with the star-studded Snatch (2000) enforcing the conception of Ritchie as a young, foul-mouthed and funny director. But the triple-punch combination of marrying Madonna, remaking Eurotrash drama Swept Away and befuddling critics and audiences with the misfiring Revolver left the mockney's career in ruins. Can he recover?

Gerard Butler began his leap to the big leagues with the title role in The Phantom of the Opera (2004) before leading the surprise box office hit 300 in 2006 as King Leonidas.

Bafta-winner Thandie Newton can next be seen as Condoleezza Rice in Oliver Stone's W while 26-year-old Toby Kebbell is steadily proving himself as one of the finest actors of his generation, following roles in Dead Man's Shoes and Control with a hugely charismatic turn as Johnny Quid.

As an example…

"There's no school like the old school, and I'm the f****n' headmaster." - Lenny

"If he's dead, that's the third time this year." - June

Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars

Decidedly slim, it's too flashy and funny to merit serious consideration but Kebbell could get an acting nod from Bafta while Empire and MTV are more likely fans of the film than the Academy.

What the others say

"A kinetic, funny, well-cast crime caper, RocknRolla proves Ritchie is still the lord of his manor - if not exactly Shakespeare." - Damon Wise, Empire

"Forgetting its Long Good Friday pretensions and allowing for its air of laddish self-congratulation and its sad whiff of homophobia – admittedly, quite a big ask – Ritchie’s film is arguably his most entertaining to date. With its cheeky wit, non-PC provocations, cock-eyed class-consciousness and cheerful irreverence it could be the closest thing to Ealing comedy we're offered these days." - Time Out

So is it any good?

Amid the media sideshow that has career has become - and whatever you think of his confusing 'privileged upbringing, mockney accent' guise - it's easy to forget that Guy Ritchie is actually a gifted filmmaker. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was a watershed moment for British film, convincing the Hollywood heavies that Blighty was capable of more than stiff upper lipped costume dramas and kicking off the careers of Matthew Vaughan (who's, whisper it, probably far more talented than his former production partner), Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones. But with celebrity weddings come the trappings of the form and even if Swept Away and Revolver had been enjoyable films - they weren't - Ritchie's wife, the African adoption shenanigans and the Kabbalah obsession would still have overshadowed the director's ability.

Thanks to RocknRolla - a bruising, back-to-basics return to Ritchie's strongest suit in the form of a London crime caper - the Great British Public might be reminded of the talent of one of our most capable filmmakers.

Barring its homophobic overtones - which aren't masked with comedy, whatever Ritchie might think - it's probably the funniest of his efforts, with particularly impressive comic timing from Tom Hardy, Gerard Butler and Toby Kebbell, the latter putting in a star-making performance as Johnny Quid, veering between Doherty-esque pranging out and bug-eyed fury, brought vividly and violently to life in a nightclub attack.

Thandie Newton, meanwhile, is at her sexiest ever, even in an oddly unnerving rip-off/homage of the Pulp Fiction dance scene, while Mark Strong provides a wizened foil to Tom Wilkinson's palpitating capo di tutti capi.

While it might have led to the unsavoury incident in which a drunk audience member at an early screening was ejected for alleged racism, the film's central theme of New School meets Old School - established London meets modern, cosmopolitan and laden with immigrant money London - is a viable backdrop for a plot that, admittedly, doesn't stretch Ritchie.

The double-crosses, lengthy fight scenes and pithy, homespun dialogue - though surely no-one as seedy as the members of the Wild Bunch would be so erudite - are all very familiar and speeches, visual tricks and a climactic twist seem ripped from the pages of Ritchie's previous scripts, the Tarantino anthology and even Vaughan's Layer Cake.

But that's what we really want, isn't it? Guy Ritchie made his name on visual flashes, snappy dialogue and labyrinthine crime plots, not European melodramas or ponderous chess battles, and like a double sausage-egg McMuffin, it's flabby, defiantly politically incorrect and almost certainly bad for you, but a mouthwatering and memorable morsel all the same.

7/10

Lewis Bazley

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