"Who do you think we are? Gangsters?!"
Guy Ritchie is back in his form after a string of bad movies in recent years. But I gotta give you a heads up, there's nothing original about ROCKNROLLA and by that I mean it has the same feel as... his great movies that made him a household name in this particular genre (Lock Stock and Snatch). Despite the lack of originality, you can't help but be entertained at the end of it all. Those of you who looking for that gangsta comedy will not get disappointed.
I think Guy Ritchie is playing it safe, this is the world he knows best and the kind of filming he knows how to do. Once again, it brings back that method of introducing each of the character through his own little storyline at first and then quickly and surely it takes us to the scenes that would show them how they'd collide and their stories interwoven. Sometimes the characters seem to disappear before they manage to somehow find their way back in to the plot again. But I gotta hand it to Guy Ritchie for moving from card game gone bad, boxing and Jewel theft gone bad in the previous movies to property deal gone bad.
Gerard Butler and Idris Elba are the comedic ones, especially a scene where they just stole a car but they get stuck there because they don't know how to start the engine. Scenes like this and the dialogue within it is Guy Ritchie's forte.
Gerard Butler might be a big reason why audience would wanna check this movie out but I don't blame them because his silliness and his cocky attitude are very entertaining.
Tom Wilkinson is a convincing old school gangsta who can't keep up with the time and changes, thinking things are still they way they used to be when they're not. There's a new ruler in town and he owns the sultry accountant played by Thandie Newton, and a football/soccer club and he has the power to order someone to knock you down with a freakin' golf club. All the while there's this rock star Johnny Quid a user and a loser who stole a priceless painting and made his father's life, the old school gangsta, more complicated than it already is.
Jeremy Pivena and rapper Ludicrous are not the most hilarious in the gang but they're pretty funny as the clueless music producers who somehow got involved in this shenanigan.
Everybody wants a piece of the pie and everybody get screwed on way or another in the process.
What I like about Guy Ritchie's gangsta comedy is that everything is headed for a clusterf*ck but it all resolves to a satisfying conclusion in the end instead of leaving it as a pile of tangled mess.