slickstu

Like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch before it, RocknRolla revolves around a group of small time crims who become indebted to a local gangster thereby setting in motion an intricate series of interrelated comical events which ultimately wind up in a neat, mortal conclusion. Where the first film had a pair of guns and the second had a diamond, the item of desire here is a painting.

Guy Richie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was fresh, sassy and funny. Snatch followed suit and, being practically the same, was (obviously) less fresh and less sassy and less funny. The script was also less elegant but Brad Pitt was great in it and we enjoyed it nonetheless. Now we have RocknRolla and it's even more of the same but by now it's starting to taste a little stale and the elegant narrative economy of Lock, Stock is largely replaced with a series of interrelated scenes merely clunked together to form basically the same story yet again. The films intrusive use of narration to define each character only serves to further draw comparisons to the former picture. RocknRolla is still an enjoyable movie, however, but like a great joke that's been told for the third time, it inevitably pales in comparison to it's first hearing.

The performances are good but not outstanding, being merely on par with what you'd expect from a cast of this calibre. Mark Strong, for instance, had a much better opportunity to demonstrate his acting chops in Ridley Scott's Body Of Lies and Tom Wilkinson merely rehashes his role from Batman Begins. In Lock, Stock, Richie used performers who were unknown at the time (well, except for Sting and, to a much lesser extent, Vinnie Jones) which also afforded that film a greater level of perceived authenticity than is evident in this film. RocknRolla also suffers for having a dearth of appealing characters - there are no cocky, lovable heroes like those which drew us into Lock, Stock - and it's difficult to relate to any of the characters portrayed here.

While it's clear that Richie has a talent for this type of film, RocknRolla's carbon copy similarity to its forebears gives the overall impression of Guy Richie making a "Guy Richie" film and the promise of sequels implies that there is yet more of the same to come. Lightning may strike the same place twice but three times (or more) is stretching it.

6 out of 10