Ready to RocknRolla...

Guy Ritchie has made a living on telling stories about gangsters. In fact his 1998 crime movie Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is considered to be one of the defining movies of the genre. So his new movie RocknRolla which he both wrote and directed feels like a return to form.

RocknRolla begins with narration from Archie, (Mark Strong) who is the right hand man

of Lenny Cole, (Tom Wilkinson) a crime boss in London. Archie describes how a simple real estate scam works with Lenny pulling all the strings to come out on top and leave the investors out in the cold and owing him money. The audience watches this simple con take place but this quickly sees it develop on a much larger scale when a Russian Mobster by the name of Uri (Karel Roden) contacts Lenny with an offer of several million euros. As a symbol of good faith, Uri allows Lenny to borrow his favorite painting.

Then the movie drops the narration technique of storytelling and leaves these characters behind to introduce the audience to the other criminals and lowlifes of the plot. We are introduced to the self-titled "Wild Bunch" which is made up of such characters as One Two and Mumbles who were recent victims of Lenny's scamming. Stella the accountant (Thandie Newton), an employee of Uri who has grown bored of her life and is craving a since of danger and excitement. The audience is also introduced to Johnny Quid (Toby Kebbell) a drugged up rocker who has recently faked his own death in an effort to boost his ratings. Johnny also happens to be the stepson of Lenny.

The movie then weaves these various storylines together, as Stella tips off One Two as to when Uri's money is being transferred. One Two hopes to steal the money in order to pay off his debt to Lenny. Lenny meanwhile has the lucky painting stolen from him which somehow ends up in the possession of Johnny Quid (which is never explained) and Archie is commissioned to track down the painting and retrieve it. There are a few nice moments from David Leon who plays Malcolm and Ludacris (credited as Chris Brown) who plays Roman. The two of them play the managers of Johnny Quid who are unwilling dragged into the hunt for the presumed dead rocker when Lenny threatens to shut down the nightclubs that they own.

It is quite possible to get lost in the various storylines being interwoven and it can get frustrating that a protagonist and antagonist are never clearly defined. It will be easier for the audience members who give up on trying to figure out whom to cheer for and simply go along for the ride. Everyone is breaking the law in one way or another in the movie anyway so it seems just as easy to wait for the plot to sort everything out.

The entertainment of the movie comes from the kind of characters that the actors create. From Mark Strong's straight laced by the book Archie who delivers a monologue on the best way to deliver a slap (use the back of the right hand in an upward motion across the face) to the much more loose Johnny Quid who delivers comically matter of fact lines such as "Don't worry. He can't defend himself-he's got no head." watching the characters interact with one another is more fun than actually watching the movie as a whole.