RockNRolla Review

RockNRolla is Guy Ritchie's latest gangster film, and it is utterly fantastic. Guy Ritchie is at his finest and back on form after some slips I won't even mention (and no I'm not talking about his marriage to & now subsequent divorce from Madonna.) if you liked "Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels" & "Snatch" you will LOVE RockNRolla. The film is fun, fast paced and frenetic in all the necessary places. It also stars sooooooo many awesomely talented people, but I'll try to only mention a few that really stood out in this incredibly talented and down right attractive ensemble.

Mark Strong, plays "Archie, formerly Archibald," the narrator (& better version of the role Jason Statham usually fills) for the opening of the film and "Number 2" to Tom Wilkinson's reigning London Gangster/Real Estate hustler in the film. Gerard Butler (possibly the hottest Dracula ever) and Idris Elba (I still miss Stringer Bell) are a truly winning...ok they're actually a pair of doltish ex-cons who end up in Wilkinson's "pocket" for some money they owe him, but are fantastic together, and part of a group of ex-cons who operate out of a back room with an ongoing card game called "The Wild Bunch." The plot like all of Guy's movies is very involved and includes a Bad but polite-Russian Billionaire, his bored and beautiful accountant played by Thandie Newton and the eponymous Rock'N'Rolla of the film, Johnny Quid, a drug addicted Rock Star who you soon learn has once again been reported dead (though it turns out to be the 3rd time in eighteen months.) Toby Kebbel steals the film as Johnny, with a hilarious and disturbing performance that's reminiscent yet more powerful than the protaganist of "Lock Stock," Nick Moran, and Brad Pitt in Snatch, but not as over the top. While Toby is possibly the best thing in the movie, I must note Gerard and Thandie's chemistry is electric and hilarious, the party scene is worth sitting through the movie itself, just to see the two of them not be sexy, which is a pretty shocking and entertaining feet. I also have to mention that Jeremy Piven and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges as well as the new "Bond" girl Gemma Arterton have small, but solid roles in the film too. Go see this film is all I can say you'll certainly be entertained.

My rating: 8.6/10.