Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Thanks for the memories!

People are voting emotionally.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Short and Simple Review by WubsTheFadgerFirst off, I am a huge Guy Ritchie fan. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and Sherlock Holmes are amazing films. If you have seen Snatch or Lock and Stock, you have already seen this film. But Guy Ritchie thrives in British crime story's and tells the story so easily. The story is complex, has great characters, and a great ending. The only downside to the story is it can be hard to follow and there are a lot of characters.The acting is great. Tom Wilkinson, Thandie Newton, Idris Elba, Tom Hardy, Jeremy Piven, Ludacris, and Toby Kebbell all perform great. Gerard Butler and Mark Strong deliver the best performances.The pacing is very fast and this can make the film hard to follow. The runtime is also a little overlong.Pros: Great British crime story, interesting characters, fast pacing, great acting, and mazing performances by Gerard Butler and Mark StrongCons: The story can be confusing because it is so complex, the pacing is also very fast which can also lead to confusion, an overlong runtime, and there are a lot of characters which can lead to further confusionOverall Rating: 8.1

I can't think of a better rock and roll sound track to this movie than what you get with RocknRolla. Besides the terrific music, there can't be a movie made anywhere in the world today with the cast of this one. So, besides a fun film with enough action for most people, the music and the performers in this thing is a treat.

It's not that I don't appreciate some of the work of Guy Ritchie. He had a nice start with Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels. And both Sherlock Holmes movies present an interesting twist on a famous character. Although I suspect the latter is more due to Robert Downey Jr.'s immense talent. Problem is, when he did Lock Stock..., it seemed like a harmless comedy. A bit of fun and capers at the expense of what Guy assumes is the "gangster lifestyle". After watching RockNRolla, you begin to suspect that this guy secretly wishes to have an army of Vinnie Joneses and Mark Strongs roughing up anyone who dares stand in his path of domination.All the ingredients are in place. You have the old time cockney crime boss, played by Tom Wilkinson, and his trusted right hand man and enforcer, played by Mark Strong. You have Gerard Butler, Idris Elba and Tom Hardy as the small time crooks who call themselves The Wild Bunch. You have a Russian businessman/gangster wanting to invest in London property, and has no qualms in showing guys like Wilkinson that times have changed, and that they are no match for those yielding his type of power and money. Add a junkie rock and roll star (Toby Kebbell), playing another anachronistic Guy Ritchie fantasy. The Russians' accountant (Thandie Newton) who backstabs him thanks to her connections to The Wild Bunch, some enforcers, two American music promoters, and all you have to do is shake, stir them all together somehow, and you have another cocktail of "hilarious consequences", and someone's idea of glamorous/ruthless crime life ready to serve.Sure, there is a plot involving a stolen painting. And a final twist where it turns out Tom Wilkinson is a police informer, resulting in death by crayfish at the hands of Mark Strong. But it all seems to take a backseat to a lot of jump cuts, exposition, violence, and attempts at humorous, witty quips. The people we care about don't get that honor because we like the cartoonish characters. Just cause we like the actors. Mark Strong is a menacing, strong presence, like he was in the first Sherlock Holmes. And Idris Elba is genuine class. Other than that, there are too many clichés, like Wilkinson. And Gerard Butler is a Poseur of the highest order (of course he has a sex scene with Newton that you can spot a mile away). Not to mention Toby Kebbell, as an insufferable, self-obsessed, profound statement spouting brat, who needed his tongue ripped out with red hot pliers.In the end, you might think there is a hidden sub-plot/morality tale about criminal money being used to hike up the price of properties in London, and pricing other residents out. Or you would, if that was given more than 30 seconds at the start of the film. What you end up getting is a glimpse into someone else's adolescent fascination. Which, frankly, could do with a little dose of subtlety, taste, and proper characterization.

I'll give Guy Ritchie some credit and I'm prepared to accept that this is certainly a handsome and stylish looking film, and, to an extent is also fairly well put together. However, that's probably about the best I can say for it to be honest...The set-up for the story opens with promise and as expected we're bearing witness to a twisting, turning narrative complete with one or two surprises to follow later in the film. Despite the promising set-up though it's actually surprising how uninvolving this film is as a whole. Essentially it's a rather humourless tale complete with rather shallow characters who share little rapport or chemistry. I think a combination of flat characterisation and a pedestrian script are perhaps the biggest contributors to this film being a bit of a snore-fest. Whilst Ritchie weaves all the strands of the story together well he does occasionally get side-tracked with pointless and dumb plot elements (such as the two junkies flogging items and Tom Hardy's character being gay). The slapping scene is another example of a moderately amusing gag being stretched rather thin and again seemed to add unnecessary running time to the picture. I couldn't help but feel that this is another 90 minute film that's been painfully stretched to nearly 120 minutes which perhaps explains why I found large parts of the film to be rather boring.Looking at RockNRolla in 2016 it's interesting to see the likes of Tom Hardy and Idris Elba before they hit the big time and whilst Tom Hardy was actually very good here sadly Idris Elba didn't make the same impact - although I'd put more of the blame on Guy Ritchie for underusing Elba and giving him nothing to do. Tom Wilkinson is good fun as mob boss Lenny Cole but he gives a rather hammy performance which wears thin and stops becoming fun by the time we reach the second half of the picture. Mark Strong is solid as Cole's loyal right-hand man and Toby Kebbell is also amusing here but isn't really given enough screen time to make the necessary impact.Having enjoyed both Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch I did have high hopes for RockNRolla and expected more of the same, and whilst Guy Ritchie admirably weaves all the strands of the story together well he does it all in a rather humourless and dull manner making this film something of a yawner.