Okay, so it's been a while since Guy Ritchie made Revolver, which really was a poor film on many levels. So, one would have thought Ritchie would have taken the feedback received for that film, and channelled the criticism into making something that might equal, if not top Lock Stock, or Snatch. What he has come up with is something that offers very little humour matched by a convoluted storyline, with weak characters.
This monumental failure can best be characterised by Ritchie's choice of Tom Wilkinson as the head London gangster. In the past, when Ritchie watchers have been treated by the likes of Lenny McLean and Alan Ford, Wilkinson pales in comparison, due to his inability to master the cockney accent, and the overall weakness given to his character from the writing. The overall feeling in Lock Stock and Snatch was that the bad guys had the power, and were scary, whereas RockNRolla displays that the bad guys are pussies, and can be messed about with little consequence.
Some performances in this film help bring it up slightly - Mark Strong and Toby Kebbell are both brilliant in their own way, and fit their characters uncannily, saving the casting director any further blushes.
The storyline, as would be expected in most Ritchie gangster films, is complicated, with the difference this time being that it was unnecessarily complicated. Snatch and Lock, Stock needed certain characters and particular situations to act as catalysts for the next section of the film to take place. It seems that with RockNRolla, most of it was added to make the ensemble cast appear larger than it needed to be.
The worst thing about this film, though, is the severe lack of any humour at all. When compared with the biting scripts of his previous work, Ritchie can only be criticised for his dearth of imagination. He seems to have lost his spark for creative and witty dialogue contained in humorous situations.
Overall, I probably will not watch this film again, for a very long time. It's disappointments heavily outweigh its plus points. Whilst it is shot in a creative way, and the script, characters and storyline smack of Ritchie-isms, I could not help but get the impression it was Ritchie mimicking himself, rather than coming up with another brilliant film. He appears to have forgotten what made him great in the first place, and has taken a formula, added nothing, and has expected people to come flocking back - a big mistake.
This monumental failure can best be characterised by Ritchie's choice of Tom Wilkinson as the head London gangster. In the past, when Ritchie watchers have been treated by the likes of Lenny McLean and Alan Ford, Wilkinson pales in comparison, due to his inability to master the cockney accent, and the overall weakness given to his character from the writing. The overall feeling in Lock Stock and Snatch was that the bad guys had the power, and were scary, whereas RockNRolla displays that the bad guys are pussies, and can be messed about with little consequence.
Some performances in this film help bring it up slightly - Mark Strong and Toby Kebbell are both brilliant in their own way, and fit their characters uncannily, saving the casting director any further blushes.
The storyline, as would be expected in most Ritchie gangster films, is complicated, with the difference this time being that it was unnecessarily complicated. Snatch and Lock, Stock needed certain characters and particular situations to act as catalysts for the next section of the film to take place. It seems that with RockNRolla, most of it was added to make the ensemble cast appear larger than it needed to be.
The worst thing about this film, though, is the severe lack of any humour at all. When compared with the biting scripts of his previous work, Ritchie can only be criticised for his dearth of imagination. He seems to have lost his spark for creative and witty dialogue contained in humorous situations.
Overall, I probably will not watch this film again, for a very long time. It's disappointments heavily outweigh its plus points. Whilst it is shot in a creative way, and the script, characters and storyline smack of Ritchie-isms, I could not help but get the impression it was Ritchie mimicking himself, rather than coming up with another brilliant film. He appears to have forgotten what made him great in the first place, and has taken a formula, added nothing, and has expected people to come flocking back - a big mistake.