image © Warner Bros Inc. 2008
There were mutterings that he’d essentially made the same film as his debut Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, but you’d have been something of a killjoy to voice that opinion too loudly back then.
Eight years is a long time though. Ritchie’s marriage to Madonna is allegedly in trouble (although the couple deny this), he hasn’t managed a critical or commercial success since, and London has become the refuge of choice for obscenely rich foreigners looking to invest their millions.
Gangster Movies Trivia Challenge
Ritchie has publicly acknowledged that the last two of these factors inspired RocknRolla, an eminently entertaining romp in the Lock Stock / Snatch mould. Its characteristically labyrinthine plot centres on a Russian mobster (who you think couldn’t be more obviously based on Roman Abramovich until the scene where he conducts a business meeting in an empty football stadium) whose multi-million pound real estate scam brings various colourful characters out of the woodwork in search of a cut.
image © Warner Bros Inc. 2008
These include old-school London crime boss Lenny Cole (Tom Wilkinson), his loyal number two Archie (Mark Strong), a sexy accountant with a penchant for a bit of rough (Thandie Newton), a pair of charming young rogues (Gerard Butler and Tom Hardy), and Cole’s estranged junkie rock star son Johnny Quid (Toby Kebbell) - to name but a few.
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As you have no doubt gathered already, the plot is highly improbable and, frankly, all over the place. However, it would be missing the point entirely to view this as a problem. When Guy Ritchie is on form (and make no mistake, he is here), his greatest strength is caricature. The resulting people, situations and conversations are deliciously exaggerated and highly amusing versions of reality.
It’s deliberately as much Carry On Gangster as it is The Long Good Friday, which is something that sniffier critics will miss. RocknRolla ends leaving the possibility of a sequel. And it easily warrants a return. Guy Ritchie may be a one-trick pony but it’s a very slick and enjoyable trick all the same. Just don’t take it too seriously.
Ritchie finds form on familiar gangland turf.
Gangster Movies Trivia Challenge
