demoncleaner
Posts: 2166
Joined: 3/10/2005
From: Belfast
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Let's face it. You're probably a wanker if you thought the title was snazzy. Similarly - and there's sufficient evidence for this - if you liked the film then…well, you probably deserve it.
When Guy Ritchie alumni Matthew Vaughan was set to release his directorial debut feature there was a definite air of condescension about it all, an aww bless reaction at his naïve temerity to go it alone. It turns out Vaughan's only lowly ambition for the excellent Layer Cake was to attempt some sense of plot satisfaction with a caper-esque thriller. While that attitude paid dividends its been a steeper learning curve for the mentor as post-Snatch Ritchie has learned that he can't do intelligent and he can't do sincere. So here we all are, back at the ball-less whimsy of his meal ticket, his own self-made genre that sees him re-inventing Ealing comedy for chavs.
RocknRolla wouldn't be a bad night out if it maintained some semblance of the fun and charm of Ritchie's first two outings. But it's a twat of a film. Full of the same gittish humour that would have earned you a kicking in the schoolyard at aged 12. ("Don't 'it me Arch! I'm only lit-tle” got the biggest laugh of the evening - this is the 21st fucking century!)
The Guy Ritchie formula for "humour” is all too apparent.
1) Take one supposedly "sharp as a tack” operator,
2) Add moron sycophant,
3) Indulge some sarcasm in direction of said moron (don't think too hard on this – unsophisticated will do fine, this isn't Woody Allen after all).
4) Sprinkle liberally with some dodgy patois – (nothing too fresh - the hackneyed the better).
5) If this is going well try some corny cockneyisms that even EastEnders would blush at (don't worry, people will think you're being post-modern*).
Yes, this film shares all the affinity with the classic British gangster film as a Beano serial. There's a gay subplot and a macguffin with a painting, but only because macguffins, (presumably like "gays”) are fashionable – pass me my lucky sick-bag. It's a pity Archie didn't take his trademark slap behind the scenes.
I went to see this because of Toby Kebbell and I think its safe to say he acts the rest of the cast off the screen (not too difficult amid a post-Grange Hill milieu). Despite being lumbered by the script with a pretentious streak you're still beguiled by his eloquence of delivery. This is a trait more evident in a seasoned theatre actor who's gifted at disguising the bollocks he often has to come out with and Kebbell makes an admirable fist of this. If there's was any justice in the world Ritchie's 5th film would go down as the first and last bad film Toby Kebbell was ever in…but we've still got The Real Rocknrolla to look forward to apparently.
Of the other actors even the dependable Tom Wilkinson is having a Falcone hangover. Mark Strong does well proving that in a Guy Ritchie film there's a certain integrity in simply looking bored – in sympathy pains with the audience. By the looks of it Gerard Butler didn't wash his face for the entire shoot, while Idris Elba, still abseiling from the stature of Stringer Bell makes the "mumbles” epithet all too appropriate.
Verdict: RocknRolla, it's the sort of film Robbie Williams would like.
2/5
*Ummm "post-modern” that's a good word – note to self – in future film must have villain pontificate on definition of post-modernism, preferably as a pre-amble to torture scene.
< Message edited by demoncleaner -- 12/9/2008 10:08:27 AM >
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