Nothing is more exciting than real estate

Guy Ritchie is a director I never really had the admiration for that many of my peers seem to hold. Lately however I want to revisit his earlier work suck as, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and Snatch. The main reason I want to see these works again is because I think I will have more respect for the filmmaking after seeing his lesser efforts such as Sherlock Holmes and most recently RocknRolla (2008).

Unlike Holmes, RocknRolla incorporates more of Guy Ritchie's signature themes of coincidence, humor, gangsters and deals gone wrong. It is complex, quick and stylized with sharp dialogue. On most all accounts it should be considered up there with his other films, but it seems to fall flat where it most counts, with intrigue. The film never gives itself enough time to breathe and let us get to know these characters and the situations they are in that we don't care what is going on.

It is always fun to watch Tom Wilkinson as a bad guy. It is always nice to watch guys who don't seem to let a thing in the world bother them other than trying to look cool. It is intriguing to see people fight to the death in a unusual manner, but the issue is Ritchie doesn't emphasize any of these moments and because of that they all feel like a throw away. A good example of this is a scene where Gerard Butlers character, named One Two, gets found by two Russian mobsters. We think they are going to kill him right away but instead there is a scene where they tie him to the bed and look like they are about to have some psedo-sexual fun with him before killing him. Ritchie presents this very casually with no time to let it sink in, we know, One Two will not have to go through with this. If you compare this scene to a similar scene in Pulp Fiction where Tarintino allows for the scene to play out, you can understand why one film succeeds and the other doesn't.

RocknRolla is better than his more successful film Sherlock Holmes. However don't go into RocknRolla expecting any of the directors best works. You will be mildly entertained, but Ritchie needs to trust his material enough to let his humor and style play out.

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