RocknRolla

Ritchie repeats again the same template and this is not one of his best shots.

Someone is trying to make easy money, but gets screwed. However, there is always a bigger fish in the pond looking to eat the smaller fish. In this movie, lowly criminals meets councillors, junkies, dead musicians, dirty accountants, nasty crime bosses and filthy rich russians. Sounds like another movie by Guy Ritchie, more or less, and it does indeed follow the same rhythm (and theme) as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The movie opens with the narrator, Archy, who breaks down the plot for us in tiny, easy-to-digest bits, and thats definitely my least favorite bit in the movie, but…

I really enjoyed this. A great ensemble cast delivering a gangster thriller that pokes it's tongue out at just about everything/body whilst still retaining enough menace to keep it engaging. As ever with Ritchie films, it does run a bit to dialogue - and this one has an, at times, irritating narrative. Tom Wilkinson ("Lenny") is quite good as the mob boss who facilitates - and takes a cut from - most big property transactions in London; and he makes a good living from it. A Russian oligarch arrives on the scene and engages Lenny, and his slimy but ruthless sidekick "Archy" (Mark Strong) to…