Or perhaps I should say Modern Times “RockNRolla”, perhaps, considering tonight’s movie was the Guy Ritchie directed flick; – one largely penned by him, as well.
And certainly up to Mr Ritchie’s usual standard.
Or formula, I should say.
It’s definitely formulaic.
And, to the point, Guy Ritchie maybe needs to widen his horizons, a little.
After all, myself, Adrian and Allison were all sitting there spotting thing’s he’d done before, or had lifted from elsewhere – paralleling Bricktop’s “Pig” monologue in “Snatch”, with a speech from Lenny, about crayfish being a good example of the former. And as for the painting …
But that characteristic London based cast is there, although not the usual Ritchie rep company.
It did feature some competent performances: Toby Kebbell did rather well as the dysfunctional AWOL rock-star, Johnny Quid, “The Long Firms” Mark Strong giving a solid performance as Archie, and I’ve got to give Thandiwe* Newton credit as Stella, here, as the token female character. Ms Newton put in a sterling performance as a dodgy accountant, but I personally think the character, or the actress, wasn’t necessarily used to the fullest; – women in Guy Ritchie films are usually strong, but only briefly seen, and it struck me that either the script or the actress was struggling to make an impact.
Gerald Butler, Tom Hardy, and Idris Elba as 1-2, Handsome Bob and Mumbles, on the other hand, formed the basis of most of the humour of the film, and much of the central action: most of a third of the film is about them working for the Thandiwe Newton character, and what happens as a result.
Which is complicated, but boils down to a property scam run by the Tom Wilkinson character, Lenny Cole. I won’t go into too much detail, here, but for me, it does make it worth watching, again. I’d be able to appreciate it, a little better.
One thing I’m sure of, though, is that it seem there’s a sequel planned. Whether it’ll be up to the standards of some of Guy Ritchie’s earlier work remains to be seen.
After all, as entertaining and funny as I found this, it could have done with a bit more work. It was competent, rather than the riveting stuff we know “Lock, Stock…” and “Snatch” to be.
One thing I feel sure of, is that it’s possibly the Guy Ritchie equivalent to the tax album.
He does have alimony to pay off, after all …
* Ms Newton’s reverted to the Shona spelling of her name.
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