There’s something to be said about Guy Ritchie’s movies. Sure, he borrows liberally from other directors, but he manages to mix everything together to form a style all his own. While his first few films were incredible, he has fallen off a bit with his previous releases. RockNRolla is Ritchie’s first crime film since 2005′s Revolver, which was met with less than positive reviews. His latest flick, RockNRolla, looks to be a return to form for the director.
RockNRolla isn’t so much a return to form as it is a return to format. Ritchie employs all the elements of his best movies in this one. Interesting characters involved in intertwined plot lines that all converge at the end: check. Snappy dialogue and unbelievable situations: check. Mysterious Macguffin (read: object that forwards the plot but whose details remain unimportant) that everyone is scrambling to get a hold of: check. Unique torture methods employed by local gangster kingpin: check. It seems that he went over a checklist for this movie and included the elements that made his other movies so great. Unfortunately, all he did was include them. He doesn’t try to improve on these ideas and it becomes clear that not only are they a bit recycled, but they were originally done better.