RockNRolla (**)

Directed by: Guy Ritchie
Starring: Mark Strong, Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Thandie Newton, Jimi Mistry, Toby Kebell, Jeremy Piven, Carl Roden
Seen: February 1st 2009

** Out of ****

Guy Ritchie blew away cinematic audiences with Lock, Stock and two Smoking Barrels in 1998, and again with Snatch in 2000. Then came Swept Away and Revolver, not one of them making it to the cinemas in South Africa, and no one noticed them gently dying. Now, in 2008, he’s back; well, kinda…

As in Snatch, we have the heaps and heaps of snappy dialogue again, mostly it works, but some of it doesn’t fly at all. Two favourite lines from the movie: Archie (Strong, in once again the best performance of the film, as in Body of Lies) saying/singing into a microphone: “You’ll never sing the same, if your teeth aren’t your own…” and Johnny Quid (Kebell) as Archie pins him to a wall: “Don’t hurt me Arch, I’m only little!”.

In Snatch we had a massive diamond having everyone run around, in RockNRolla it is a painting that we never see. A Russian billionaire (Roden), doing business in the UK, lends Lenny Cole (Wilkinson) his lucky painting for the duration of his business trip, but the painting gets stolen while in Lenny’s possession. Lenny, being the cruel business persona that he is, makes some trouble for a notable number of people in trying to get the painting (that we never see) back.

All of the same ingredients that were used in Snatch and Lock, Stock… feature here, but that doesn’t feel enough, something has gone missing in the creative process here. It is good to see Ritchie almost getting back on form with sporadic consistency in the film, but the massive amount of smart-ish dialogue that permeates the film here acts more as a whole lot of disposition that never gives enough of a pay-off. Don’t get me wrong, some action sequences are fantastic, most notably the chase sequence with One-Two (Butler) and his buddies trying to get away from/rid of two immensely and unlikely tough Russians, much like Boris the Blade from Snatch – another ingredient copied for RockNRolla. But on the whole it feels like you’re wasting your time sitting around listening to a bunch of people talking raw British, and the pay-off for it almost never truly comes.

But then Mark Strong walks onto the screen again, and on his brilliance alone he lifts the film out of mere mediocrity.