saw it yesterday
i hardly noticed any press coverage or adveritising for this, strangely

anyway, talk about a return to form

i especially recommend it if you like hearing loud (hard)rock music set to cinematic sequences

or if you liked Snatch and Lock Stock & Smoking Barrel

Looking forward to it.

>RocknRolla

By JOE LEYDON

After shipwrecking with "Swept Away" and misfiring with "Revolver," Brit filmmaker Guy Ritchie bounces back to top form with "RocknRolla," a cleverly constructed, sensationally stylish and often darkly hilarious seriocomic caper. Marginally more restrained than his attention-grabbing breakthrough efforts -- "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch" -- his new pic proves just as aggressively exciting while zigzagging through an intricate maze of plots and counterplots, dirty deals and double-crosses. Commercial prospects are generally bright in all media, although thick accents and unfamiliar slanguage employed by the predominantly Brit cast may impede pic's appeal to mainstream U.S. ticketbuyers.

Gerard Butler emerges as first among equals in an impressive ensemble cast as One Two, a small-time hustler hoping to become a big-time entrepreneur by entering the booming London real-estate market.

Along with partners-in-crime Mumbles (Idris Elba of TV's "The Wire") and Handsome Bob (Tom Hardy), One Two attempts a bit of property speculation with a loan from Lenny Cole (Tom Wilkinson), an influence-peddling, bureaucrat-bribing crime boss who knows where all the bodies are buried (largely because he buried many of them himself). Cole duly pulls the right strings -- but only so he can stealthily lasso the property for himself and still demand repayment from One Two.

Not surprisingly for a Ritchie pic, the deception sets off an interlocking chain of contrivances, coincidences, intricate plans and desperate improvisations. To repay Cole, One Two and his crew sign on as heisters for Stella (Thandie Newton), a curvaceous and very crooked accountant working for criminally inclined Russian billionaire Uri Obamavich (Karel Roden).

The busy plot grows exponentially more complex each time writer-helmer Ritchie drops another colorful character into the mix. Among the more significant complicating factors: Archy (Mark Strong), Lenny's resolutely loyal and fiercely unforgiving right-hand man; Roman (Jeremy Piven) and Mickey (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges), American rock promoters who are inadvertently involved with the hunt for a stolen painting; and Johnny Quid (Toby Kebbell), a spectacularly wasted punk rocker who's the black-sheep stepson of -- yes, you guessed it -- Lenny Cole.

"RocknRolla" barrels along at a brisk clip that's never noticeably decelerated by the occasional inclusion of flashbacks and flash-forwards. In a pic chockfull of kinetic set pieces, it's almost unfair to single out individual sequences. But it's safe to say that auds may get giddy watching a robbery that begins with a purposeful collision of car and truck, continues with a frenzied battle involving golf clubs and automatic weaponry, and climaxes with an audaciously extended foot chase. Through it all, Ritchie steadily ratchets up the thriller-diller quotient by suggesting two Russian thugs (who resemble refugees from "Eastern Promises") are, quite literally, unkillable.

Pic frequently borders on the cartoonish -- or, during the rapid-fire opening-credits sequence, the graphic-novelish -- but also offers touches of cheeky drollery. (Note the smooth moves and scene thievery of Nonso Anozie as a soft-spoken, plus-size underworld type fond of Whistler paintings and Merchant-Ivory movies.) Final wrap-up isn't exactly airtight, but the entwining of the various plot threads is genuinely amusing.

Thesps across the board are well cast and, more important, well attuned to Ritchie's style of carefully calibrated exaggeration. (Kebbell is particularly adept at handling the writer-helmer's trademark sardonic monologues.) Standout tech values include gritty-glossy high-def lensing by David Higgs and razor-sharp editing by James Herbert.

Camera (Technicolor), David Higgs; editor, James Herbert; music, Steve Isles; music supervisor, Ian Neil; production designer, Richard Bridgland; art director, Andy Nicholson; set decorator, Debbie Moles; costume designer, Suzie Hartman; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS), John Hayes; associate producers, Lauren Meek, Martin Askew, Mickey De'Hara; assistant director, Max Keene; casting, Reg Poerscout-Edgerton. Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Special Presentations), Sept. 4, 2008. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 114 MIN.
______________________________________________________________________
"I don't want a president I can have a beer with, I want one that can think." - Aaron Sorkin

Later & American Gangster? Combined? Hopefully

Also, according to that Variety review Zoo posted (thanks & good lookin out btw) sounds like Boris Da Blade might make an apperance in this?

has some of the best lines too

I don't recall who boris the blade is but there's a couple of incredibly tough russian goons

>has some of the best lines too
>
>I don't recall who boris the blade is but there's a couple of
>incredibly tough russian goons

The sneaky russian in Snatch that wouldn't die.

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2045678080/nm0784884

..was in SNATCH and took a long time for vinnie to kill

>Also, according to that Variety review Zoo posted (thanks &
>good lookin out btw)
________________________________________________________________________
"I don't want a president I can have a beer with, I want one that can think." - Aaron Sorkin

>i especially recommend it if you like hearing loud (hard)rock
>music set to cinematic sequences

if you need clarification just think of hte music in snatch and lockstock, but a bit grittier

I find myself turning down the volume at home whenever there's scenes like that.

WOW, when does it actually hit theaters?

but yeah, same sort of thing

Glad to see Guy return to form instead of trying more stupid-- er, I mean, "heavy" chess metaphor movies

FOH Mr. Madonna, get back to the guns and double-crosses and shit

Speaking of which, if you want to ask about plot points, you might want to ask someone else, as I was a bit confused as to all of the goings on; nonetheless, things start to make sense as we hurtle toward the conclusion... or maybe I wasn't paying *that* close attention (it's been happening a lot these days)...

Anyway, I thought it was a pretty funny flick; there's a little gay paranoia humor that threatens to become overbearing, but doesn't...

Gerard Butler and Idris Elba (not "Stringer Bell," n*ggas) make a surprisingly affable team... Thandie, while still too skinny for my tastes, was still pretty hot, though I'm not really clear what her purpose was in the grander scheme of things... and I'll pretty much watch Tom Wilkinson in anything these days... son could read a defense department orientation guide and I'd watch him... I thought that Luda and Jeremy Piven were okay in their roles, but again, I don't know if you really needed them in the grander scheme of things...

And another downside to me was that I didn't really feel any sense of "danger," or "jeopardy," even when bad stuff starts to happen to our heroes... the entire exercise just looks and feels like a gang of people getting together and having fun making a goofy "gangster" flick...

So I'm recommending this if you dug all of the stylistic tricks and technical trademarks of previous Guy Richie joints: the whip-pans, the quick-cuts, the variable film speeds within shots, the so-cool-it-hurts soundtrack... all of that is there, and more...

Oh, and there's a nice little "Oh, word?" surprise at the very end...
________________________________________________________________________
<------ Yeah... not gonna happen.

I've seen in years, there's a chance I'll still enjoy this one?

________________________________________________________________________
<------ Yeah... not gonna happen.

Hope it gets a wider release soon.

But its the same fun, entertaining movie, with a few new parts to freshen up the delivery. It's been a few years...I'll see it, enjoy it and forget about it for 6 months

like Swept Away or Revolver.

This movie isn't amazing and is pretty forgettable but it's entertaining.

I saw this a couple of weeks ago. Guy Ritchie has no new ideas. This is a rehash of Lock, Stock and Snatch. Ritchie is the main villan in this film in the way that he criminally wastes the acting talent at his disposal. It is a career low for most involved. Piven and Luda are wasted in non-roles, the normally brilliant Wilkinson has to spout mockney rubbish dialogue. And to call his production company Toff Guy Films tells you everything you need to know about Ritchie and his upper class background. If you aren't British then you might not know his background.

At the end of the film he says they are going to be back in a sequal. Please no this film does not deserve a follow up. Anyway, i doubt he gets the funding for it.

This review is exactly how i feel about the film
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/sep/07/actionandadventure

Guy Ritchie's return to form has been greatly exaggerated. The director has returned to familiar territory with his latest film, RocknRolla, but the cockney caper larkiness of his first and only enjoyable work, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, is sadly missing
A 21st-century London crime story - complete with nods (butts?) to that genre's classics The Long Good Friday, Performance and even Eastern Promises - Ritchie's new work starts on a wrong note and never recovers. 'The London property market is booming,' says a voiceover straight out of the East End via Rada. 'And the only way is up.' Tell that to the bloke who has just valued my flat.

RocknRolla is the story of a disappeared rock star (Toby Kebbell), a Russian businessman (Karel Roden), a missing painting, a bunch of heavies (Gerard Butler, Idris Elba) and an underworld boss (Tom Wilkinson, a little bit Harold Pinter, a little bit Bob Hoskins and a lot out of place). Wearing killer heels is Thandie Newton as an accountant who knows where the money is and with whom to flirt. And the title? Well, as we're told during the credits, 'it's about more than drums, drugs and 'ospital drips... a rocknrolla wants the faahkin' lot'.

There's no real plot here, just a series of interlinked subplots, like Olympic circles with no end in sight. Various actors sniff and say: 'There's no school like the old school and I'm the faahkin' 'eadmaster.' People are bitter about doing a 'five-stretch thanks to a grass', and some people are into some other people for 'seven large', or maybe 'two large', if only someone would tell them how large that is, exactly. No time for that, though, what with 'two grams of Hurry Up and four Jack the Rippers' waiting at the backstreet gambling den.

For 40 minutes or so, you might buy this, but soon enough RocknRolla reveals itself to be a hollow pose rather than a film. At least in Lock, Stock..., the audience wanted the likable geezers to escape a gangland beating. Here, there's no humour and no sympathetic characters in a black hole of tedium, outmoded, flashy camera moves, yobbishness and mockney nonsense. Most distastefully, the work is riddled with issues about gayness, public schools and immigrants, with no directorial distance or judgment implied. I'd jog on if I were you.

Actually, Guy has said that he'd like to make this a trilogy (btw, the sequel title card was what I was referring to as the "Oh, word?" surprise)

Again, people know what they're getting when they go see a Guy Richie movie... that is, when he isn't trying to "blow our minds" with "deep" chess allegories...

I didn't go in expecting anything other than guns, nice cars, some goofy "oh shit, a double cross!" plotting, some violence, (if I was lucky) some boobs, camera tricks, and a loud soundtrack... and I got almost all of that... you're certainly not going to remember any of it 24 hours later, but should we even be expected to?

I liked Lock, Stock.., but I only recall the final scene with the dude trying to reach the guns over the bridge because of the song that was used (Fool's Gold)... I liked Snatch, but only have a vague recollection of Brad Pitt adopting an intentionally bad accent as some kind of vagabond fighter...

Guy Richie is at his best at making variations of disposable laddie pictures... I'd rather look at them than Madge mugging it up for 90 minutes...
________________________________________________________________________
<------ Yeah... not gonna happen.

IMAGINE THAT!!!!!

i'mma have fun with this shit.

Please Aim Your Bait Gun Elsewhere, Thanks,
http://theitch.files.wordpress.com/2006/11/doorman.JPG?w=295&h=354
________________________________________________________________________
<------ Yeah... not gonna happen.

"it's pretty much what i expected...i was entertained for a couple hours"

^^^^an acceptable answer from ANY movie fan, except one who goes to see a "black" flick. then, we have a problem and long drawn out debates.

ain't shit else to say, dogg. you can dismiss it, you can try to flip it, but it is what it is.

and, for real, you ain't even as bad as some of these dudes, but to see you give a reshased, stylized crime caper a pass, because you got what you EXPECTED...LMAO..man, fuck outta here, dogg.

Even though I enjoyed the film a few things did stand out to me that weren't even necessarily about the film itself. No Black director could ever get away with making the type of hard edged, violent, crime film that Guy continues to make without white & Black folks complaining. He likes gangster movies and that's what he does. Nobody is going to claim that he is causing youth in the UK to shoot up schools or enter into a life a crime. No one is going to ask if he is "really hood". Then add to that the fact that a "rocknrolla" can be as violent, self destructive and ignorant as he wants to be but God forbid if someone made "Gangsta Rapper" and made that shit as cool and sexy as Guy did.

i'd rather crowd surf in a leper colony than read The Guardian

I just saw it and loved that shit. I'm probably one of the few people who actually like Guy's style of filmaking. You're right the music is a perfect fit for the movie.

taking away his creative drive. as soon as they call it quits, he puts out a banger.

can't wait to see it.

podcast: http://preachjacobs.mypodcast.com

official site: http://www.preachjacobs.com


Preach's myspace: http://www.myspace.com/kindablu

Cop it: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/preachhiphop

Buzz is wrong more often than its right in Hollywood and you still can't label a film anything (quality-wise) until you've seen it.

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=6&topic_id=371140&mesg_id=371140&page=9

I thought I saw something flying over my head...

______________________________________________________________________________

R.I.P. Sean Taylor, 1983-2007

http://cscpov.blogspot.com/

"There's a fine line between persistence and foolishness..."
-unknown

"To Each His Reach"
-George Clinton

It's basically a different version of Lock Stock/Snatch.

*pause*

Very serious tone, for Guy.

So strike a pose and Talk About It,
http://theitch.files.wordpress.com/2006/11/doorman.JPG?w=295&h=354
________________________________________________________________________
<------ Master Baiters, read it and weep.

Guy fitna get paid

You gotta go to Kabbalah class with that ol fish

Be mad
________________________________________________________________________
<------ Master Baiters, read it and weep.

NOPE

Beatty done sniffed that ol' puss, too. Then went and married someone else. You mad.

And an alias. Double fault.
________________________________________________________________________
<------ That's it, that's all.

on a message board? The fuck else should I do right now? I sit in courtside seats around the world and make comments about the weather and who I think will win...I'm on permanent vaca and STILL get that cream = YOU mad

Fun characters.
Cliche'ed badguy.
Incoherent plot.

Not a bad movie, just not a good one. I do like the Johnny Quid character tho, so Im hoping (and its doubtful) that with the sequel they take it somewhere else as opposed to just solid young hip english actors chewing up the scenery.

>Fun characters.
>Cliche'ed badguy.
>Incoherent plot.
>
>Not a bad movie, just not a good one. I do like the Johnny
>Quid character tho, so Im hoping (and its doubtful) that with
>the sequel they take it somewhere else as opposed to just
>solid young hip english actors chewing up the scenery.


agreed....

it had the potential being good, but ritchie dropped the ball...certain characters got short shrift (what was mumbles storyline? why was stella willing to play with crime bosses money with NO regard for her own life/safety? what was the point of roman and micky, etc.)

i liked it...just not as much as lock, stock.

honestly, tony kebbell (johnny quid) stole the fucking show...tom wilkinson was in top form, and thandie newton really is sex on a stick and was able to do A LOT with little...and she was getting a lot of praise in interviews i read.

her chemistry with butler was on point and im hoping that is explored in the second film...IF stella survives the movie (the ending was quite open-ended...but, i doubt ritchie would kill her off...or not.)

gerard was ok..but he was eclipsed by everyone else, i think.

tom hardy was unexpected heat rock as Handsome Bob--i SO wasnt expecting him to come out and admit he had feelings for One Two (Butler), but once he did, his interactions with him earlier in the film made A LOT of sense...plus, the fact that everyone knew and didn't care..hilarious.

the dancing scene/party: thandie and gerald--all types of wrong.

good movie...not worth the fawning praise some reviewers have given it...but solid. i'm curious to get the DVD and see what ended up on the cutting room floor...i feel like the movie wasn't complete, etc.

Guy is definitely one of my favorite directors and this was a typical movie for him (in a good way).

Great characters, some hilarious moments and a nice story.

I'll quote "Snatch" till ya'll muh'fuckas is BORED!

n/m

kudos

Never seen any of his other films, just wanted to see this off of the one commercial I saw. Thought it was well cast, with the exception ludicris who was a terrible pick for his character. I liked the writing, liked the shooting, and all in all, it was just a very enjoyable film.

YOu never saw Snatch or Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels? Get out and cop those right now..

was funny and had good music and i could follow plot.

revolver sucked

its hard to follow with their accents man. need subtitles

was bored for most of the movie.

only funny part was the whole "feg bob" dialogue.

i don't know.

just boring and hard to follow plot.

Great fuckin movie and I recommend it to ery'body.. If you liked Snatch or Lock Stock you'll love this movie.. Cant wait for the implied 2nd movie.

i really liked it.

It took way too long to set this movie up. It felt like there was narration for like the first half... or at least the first third. That sucked. After that, when it actually got going it was pretty good.

And I agree with whoever mentioned having trouble with their accents/needing subtitles. Sometimes I just flat out missed things that were said.

are basically British versions of the mid-90s Pulp Fiction/2-Days-In-The-Valley genre) but nowhere near the trainwreck of his last two.......both among the most unwatchable bullshit films of this decade.

Same kind of coincidental-criminal shit, some snappy dialogue (although this is where Guy pales in comparison badly to a guy like QT), more straight rock-oriented soundtrack than Lock/Stock or Snatch (which mixed in some ska/funk/old-school-r&b), lather/rinse/repeat.

No character really stood out much to me aside from Johnny Quid. Jeremy Piven had basically nothing to do and Luda was basically this film's 'token rapper in a useless role' that Andre was to Revolver.

A couple laughs. A couple cool sequences. Some decent music here or there. Too long for the type of movie it was......imdb is saying it was 2 hours but I swear the DVD version I saw last night was closer to two-and-a-half (or at least felt like that or closer to three).

The closing credits indicating this is part of a serial of films with this gang makes sense, because really I'm not sure Guy Ritchie can do any film outside of this niche nor does it seem he cares to prove otherwise at this point.

2.5 out of 5.

except the music is such a step down. I mean in Lock Stock and in Snatch not only did he choose great music but he also made amazing sequences (IE The "I wanna be your dog" sequence in Lock stock). Besides The Clash's "Bankrobber" I not only didn't recognize any of the songs but there wasn't anything else that stood out. It all seemed like the same generic garage rock to keep an energy and atmosphere but nothing beyond that.

I mean Jeremy Piven was so sad to watch, a 40 yr old white guy trying so hard to be black and hip just isn't fun. And why was luda so boring, it's like if u're going to get luda have him joking around or some kind of energy.

>except the music is such a step down. I mean in Lock Stock
>and in Snatch not only did he choose great music but he also
>made amazing sequences (IE The "I wanna be your dog" sequence
>in Lock stock). Besides The Clash's "Bankrobber" I not only
>didn't recognize any of the songs but there wasn't anything
>else that stood out. It all seemed like the same generic
>garage rock to keep an energy and atmosphere but nothing
>beyond that.
>
agreed, music was monotonous, just loud for the sake of being loud rock.

>I mean Jeremy Piven was so sad to watch, a 40 yr old white guy
>trying so hard to be black and hip just isn't fun. And why was
>luda so boring, it's like if u're going to get luda have him
>joking around or some kind of energy.
>
Luda has yet to impress me in a role really, closest would probably be as Skinny Black just because he was able to make me want to see him get his ass beat.

I liked it.

And while some scenes and characters were enjoyable, the story didn't hold u to Lock, Stock or Snatch.

Maybe I don't know how Russian billionaires get down when makin' major real estate deals, but that painting shyt was pretty weak. I understand the antique guns in LS2SB and of course the diamond in Snatch, but that just seemed like a weird way to tie everything together.

Oh and there is no other way to transfer millions? Ok maybe it's too much to wire or make out into a check, but there had to be a better way.

I wasn't too impressed by the Wild Bunch either. More back story on them would have been nice. We just had to assume they were "wild".


catch a swollen heart, from not rollin' smart

>And while some scenes and characters were enjoyable, the
>story didn't hold u to Lock, Stock or Snatch.
>
>Maybe I don't know how Russian billionaires get down when
>makin' major real estate deals, but that painting shyt was
>pretty weak. I understand the antique guns in LS2SB and of
>course the diamond in Snatch, but that just seemed like a
>weird way to tie everything together.
>
>Oh and there is no other way to transfer millions? Ok maybe
>it's too much to wire or make out into a check, but there had
>to be a better way.
>
>I wasn't too impressed by the Wild Bunch either. More back
>story on them would have been nice. We just had to assume they
>were "wild".
>
>
>catch a swollen heart, from not rollin' smart

I liked the heist/chase scene with the mercenaries. I think it would have jump started the movie sooner, instead of the two accountants. I liked the dynamic between Johnny Quid and his step pops, but Archie was my favorite character. I liked the "twist" at the end; it's one thing I like about Guy's movies, the protagonists appear to be shyt outta luck and the tables turn at the last minute.


catch a swollen heart, from not rollin' smart