RocknRolla
RocknRolla would suggest a lot of hard edged power chords but mostly we’re dealing with deception, payoffs, bribes and money laundering as London mobsters try to muscle their way into a veneer of legitimacy. The only musician we meet is a chart topper with a golden arm and a talent for coming back from the dead. We meet Johnny Quid (Toby Kebbell) after he’s resurrected himself to steal a painting from Lenny Cole (Tom Wilkinson with an uber receding hairline) an old school gangster who just happens to be his step father. Unfortunately the artwork is on loan as a good faith gesture from Uri (Karel Roden), a Russian nouveau racketeer that Lenny is doing business with. Uri is taking investment advice from Stella (Thandie Newton) a luscious chain smoking dollar diva who in turn is taking a cut of millions in rubbles for setting up the high jacking of Uri’s money mules. To do this she hires a trio of thugs headed by a man known only as One Two (Gerard Butler) who as it turns out owes a great deal of money to Lenny. Tossed into the intricate mix is Jeremy Piven as Johnny Quid’s record producer. This underground merry-go-round story circles with the same speed and ingenuity of other Guy Ritchie projects like Snatch or Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and again the former Mr Madonna is finally back in top form directing this rocking and rolling film.