Rock n Rolla

Review by Clint Morris
More: Second Opinion Review | Interview - Guy Ritchie

Rock N' Roll is the answer to everything. Feeling down? Turn it on!  Feel the need to dance? Turn it up!  Just in the mood to have a good time? Dance? Sing? Tap your feet? Let your hair down?

Bring it on!

And Guy Ritchie's new film will stir up all those emotions, too. Aptly, it's called Rocknrolla - and yes, it will have you clenching a fist, holding it up high and swaying it back-and-forth in the direction of the ashen screen.

Ostensibly given up on his campaign to step outside his comfort zone and try new things - good for some, not for others, especially when they make pedestrian poop like Swept Away - Ritchie returns to the battleground he made his name in.

That's right - the seedy, cheeky, anything-goes back-streets of bustling England, now and forever occupied by some of the craziest cats you're likely to see this side of an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

Rocknrolla is Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels on acid or, to cite a more recent example, Snatch on Redbull.

It's just insanely fast, frenzied high-spirited fun. Thank god Madonna let her husband off-the-leash to do something fun again (and something she didn't insist in appearing in!).

It's brilliantly-written, immaculately performed and deliciously directed. If rock is the devil's music, this is the devil's movie - and by Jeeves, the red guy knows how to party.

The film opens with an explanation - provided by the narrator of the picture, Archie (Mark Strong) - as to what the title refers to:

"People ask the question...what's a RocknRolla? And I tell 'em - it's not about drugs, drums, and hospital drips, oh no. There's more there than that, my friend. We all like a bit of the good life - some the money, some the drugs, other the sex game, the glamour, or the fame. But a RocknRolla, oh, he's different. Why? Because a real RocknRolla wants the fucking lot."

And by film's end, you'll know who the Rocknrolla is.

You don't exactly need to have your brain switched on watching a film like this, but since it moves fast and ultimately weaves its characters and their stories, it's best to stay a little alert. Miss the chorus, and you'll be a tad lost.

When a Russian mobster (Karel Roden) orchestrates a crooked land deal, millions of dollars are up for grabs, and all of London's criminal underworld wants in on the action. Everyone from a dangerous crime lord (Tim Wilkinson) to a sexy accountant (Thandie Newton), a corrupt politician (Jimi Mistry) and down-on-their-luck petty thieves (Gerard Butler plays the ring-leader) conspire, collude and collide with one another in an effort to get rich quick.

There are similarities between Rocknrolla and Ritchie's previous gangster pics (for instance, there is the priceless article of trade that everyone wants to get their hands on - in this case, a painting), there is the cockney recitation throughout the film, and there is the scary-ass mo-fo who'll eat you for brunch. Vital ingredients. All part of the tasty cocktail.

Ritchie is clearly the star of the show with his incontestably fun script and awesome array of characters, but the actors he's rounded up for the flick - and like his earlier pics, they aren't all names - are absolutely stupendous.

Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Mark Strong (also brilliant in Ridley Scott's latest film Body and Lies), Thandie Newton, and Yankees 'Ludicrous' and Jeremy Piven, truly liquefy into their characters. It looks as if they're having as great a time as we are watching them, which is even more delightful.

The film may sound like a 70s roller-skating disco drama, but it's anything but - it's bad-to-the-bone and proud of it. It'll turn your frown upside down and regurgitate your buoyancy in the British gangster pic (that were all the rage in the 90s before they became month-old-cheese-stale).

Rocknrolla is the most fun you'll have at the movies this year. Guaranteed.

4 out of 5

RocknRolla
Australian release: 30th October, 2008
Official Site: RocknRolla
Cast: Gerard Butler, Idris Elba, Toby Kebbell, Thandie Newton, Jeremy Piven
Director: Guy Ritchie