Rocknrolla

Guy Ritchie redeems himself

Guy Ritchie exploded into American film when MTV gave his British gangster film Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels a special award in 1999. When his 2000 film Snatch opened, Ritchie won even more fans by giving this similar film a mainstream feel and by casting Brad Pitt as a gibberish-speaking, boxing gypsy.

But when he directed his former wife (Madonna) in the remake of the classic romantic film Swept Away, he lost his fan base. Three years later, he tried to earn their respect back with a psychological British gangster flick (Revolver), but it lost its audience as it fell apart in the end. With his new film Rocknrolla, Ritchie is returning to the same roots that got him noticed in the beginning. And this time, nobody is being let down.

The first time I saw the trailer for Rocknrolla, I asked myself the same question you’ve probably asked yourself – “What’s a rocknrolla?” The opening scene’s voice-over defines it better than my own words can. Just know it’s a person along the lines of being badass for all the right reasons. Rocknrolla has a cast full of them. By the end of the movie, you find out who’s a real rocknrolla and who’s not.

Just like Lock, Stock and Snatch, Rocknrolla is very complicated, far too complicated to explain here. It involves lots of characters in different situations and coincidental mix-ups that further complicate each one of their stories. But if you just sit back, bear with it and try to follow it as best you can, then you’ll understand it perfectly by the end.

If you’ve never seen a Guy Ritchie film, Rocknrolla is a great place to start. It’s filled with his punch line-less humor, brutal violence, lovable characters (played brilliantly by such actors as Gerard Butler, Thandie Newton and Tom Wilkinson) and a perfect denouement. It’s the Guy Ritchie film that every Guy Ritchie fan has wanted to see since Snatch.

Photo credit: Warner Bros.