Someone is trying to make easy money, but gets screwed. However, there is always a bigger fish in the pond looking to eat the smaller fish. In this movie, lowly criminals meets councillors, junkies, dead musicians, dirty accountants, nasty crime bosses and filthy rich russians. Sounds like another movie by Guy Ritchie, more or less, and it does indeed follow the same rhythm (and theme) as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
The movie opens with the narrator, Archy, who breaks down the plot for us in tiny, easy-to-digest bits, and thats definitely my least favorite bit in the movie, but sadly, needed. This plot is a twisted labyrinth, that constantly shifts from one person to the next. There are no real heroes here, just fish eaten by sharks, hunted by humans, killed by... you get the point.
RocknRolla has a huge cast, and some big names too. In smaller roles, you'll see names such as Tom Hardy (Handsome Bob), Jeremy Piven (Roman), Thandie Newton (Stella) and Idris Elba (Mumbles), and in the bigger, you find names like Gerard Butler (One Two), Mark Strong (Archy) and Tom Wilkinson (Lenny Cole). Most of them delivers quirky and fun characters, and some of them even gives us a bit to think about, like Tom Hardy's role, Handsome Bob, who is coming to terms with being gay.
The movie is fast-paced to begin with, but slows down a bit later on. It has the obligatory violent Guy Ritchie scenes that reminds us of the early movies of Quentin Tarantino, but in the end, it is all a bit hollow. This is a movie about greed, about screwing over those with money, or even, those without.
Last words... looking for a bit of solid entertainment, a good plot (not too easy to get your head around, but not too hard to loose you either) and some nice solid actors (and actresses), this is definitely the movie you are looking for.