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RocknRolla
Warner Bros. Pictures


7.6

based on 28 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 52 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for pervasive language, violence, drug use and brief sexuality

Starring Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Thandie Newton, Mark Strong, Idris Elba, Tom Hardy, Toby Kebbell, and Jeremy Piven

RocknRolla is a story of sex, thugs and rock 'n roll. The action comedy takes a dangerous ride into high crime and low life in contemporary London, where real estate has supplanted drugs as the biggest market, and criminals are its most enthusiastic entrepreneurs. But for anyone looking to get in - from small-time crook One Two to shady Russian billionaire Uri Obomavich - there's only one man to see: Lenny Cole. (Warner Bros.)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Crime
WRITTEN BY:	Guy Ritchie
DIRECTED BY:	Guy Ritchie
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 27, 2009 Theatrical: October 8, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	114 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Ritchie concocts a crime-jungle demimonde that's organically linked to the real world, and it's a damn fun one to visit.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

It's all here: the ingenious, obscenity-laced language, the double crosses that turn into triple crosses, the swaggering characters so in love with themselves. GottaLove RocknRolla!

Variety Joe Leydon

A cleverly constructed, sensationally stylish and often darkly hilarious seriocomic caper.

New York Post Kyle Smith

A sharp comedy as well as a punk-pulp spree. Don't go if you can't handle Brit slang. ("Grass" = informer.)

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The bottom line is, all these people chase the same money around with the success of doggie tail-biting, and it's a lot of fun, and it's not often in these con films that everybody is conning everybody, and they're all scared to death, and nobody knows which cup the pea is under.

Premiere Jenni Miller

Though the plot has a few too many holes in it, the sheer fun of RockNRolla makes it easy to overlook such quibbles. Butler will make you forget all about "Sparta."

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Although the characters are all cartoons, Ritchie still invests them with enough personality to make them stand out as real people, which is what makes RocknRolla much more involving than your typical Tarantino ripoff.

Time Richard Corliss

The main problem is that Ritchie keeps playing the same old song. It's a swell tune, and we don't mind hearing it every few years, but we'd welcome another subject in a transposed key. Even the Material Girl tries out fresh material.

Film Threat Mark Bell

If you're a fan of the early Ritchie comedy-crime thrillers, then this is not only right up your alley, it's a long lost relative returning home.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

As is the norm for Ritchie, Rocknrolla is also too long, too coolly violent, and too populated by characters who all talk like they've been reading the same pulp novelist.

Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt

A fast-paced amoral joyride that's more interested in the absurdities of violent criminality (torture by crayfish, anyone?) than the complications of real life.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Watching Guy Ritchie's British-underworld farce, RocknRolla, is like being compelled to pay attention to a nonstop rock station you normally use as background while you're doing chores. The words are catchy and the beat keeps you awake, though all of it quickly fades.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

It's fun to see Tom Wilkinson, for instance, with a massive bald spot virtually eating scenery with a knife and fork.

USA Today Claudia Puig

A well-acted and attitudinal action movie, a return to Ritchie's trademark "Mockney" style, which takes amusing and twisted turns.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

RocknRolla is a kickass crime drama that just doesn't know to quit while it's ahead.

Los Angeles Times Sam Adams

Ritchie whisks you along on a whirlwind tour, but he's not averse to putting on the brakes long enough to admire some of his favorite attractions.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It never generates much interest in its story or affection for its characters, and it's simply not half as funny as it needs to be.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

As punchy and energetic as the first few moments are, the rest of the film quickly falls back into mediocrity.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Like the filmmaking itself, the violence has no passion, no oomph, no sense of real or even feigned purpose.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

On the plus side, the actors - especially Butler and Wilkinson - work overtime to pump some extra life into the self-conscious script.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

This film's got EVERYTHING, although purists might quibble that it lacks any sliver of plausibility or dramatic interest.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

RocknRolla is a copy of a copy of a valuable original, and you know how faint and unintelligible those can be.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

If only RocknRolla's characters were at all believable - even in the context of its own cartoon universe.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Thinking back on watching these performers, I see them mostly as an arrangement of bewildered actors awaiting orders, as if Ritchie hasn't bothered to tell them what he needs them to do. He’d sure make a lousy Mob boss.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Ritchie, who shoots and cuts everything in RocknRolla like an ad for a particularly greasy brand of fragrance for men, delivers the beatings and killings in his trademark atmosphere of morally weightless flash.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

RocknRolla attempts to depict a world of ever-expanding chaos. But the chaos is only in the way the story is told. The actual vision Ritchie offers is pedestrian and tame.

Village Voice Nick Pinkerton

Sum total of scenes that deserved to stay in the final cut: Thandie Newton doing a little shimmying frug.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Frenetic and self-conscious to the point of tedium.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 52 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Rowan F gave it a10:
VS.D, sorry, but go f**k yourself. Rocknrolla may in fact be the EXACT opposite to what you said. If you are considering seeing this film then you MUST do so! It is one of the greatest, most interesting, thrilling, satisfying movies ever. The story has some great unexpected twists and literally kept me on the edge of my seat all the way through, ok so its a little complicated but if you stick with it then you'll love it. The action sequences are awesome and original and I wouldn't swap just one of them for the ALL of the action sequences in Quantom of Solace. Plus the acting and characters are truly superb. All of it comes together to form something so unbelievably amazing that you simply HAVE to see it. Half of these reviewers are talking out of their asses, i'm not even sure we were watching the same movie!

frixos g gave it a5:
Its all following a formula its an expensive object some amount of money several gangster groups that fight for those two there also some other nationality involved so there is a different theme each time what else?oh the drug addict who screwed things up.etc You get the picture.Though i guess would rate it more there weren't any lock stock and 2 smoking barrels or snatch.

caporegime gave it a2:
What happened to guy ritchie? The only thing that made this movie good is the rocknrolla itself, standing in front of the mirror with the clash soundtrack playing, that is the only thing i can remember about this movie. Everything else is human waste.

nate gave it a9:
I like it how so many people say this movie is boring. You would have to be an idiot to even fathom that! its a fast paced action thriller with good action and well crafted humor. Excited to see the next installment!!!!

[Anonymous] gave it a3:
Not completely bad, but could use the subtitle "Kinda like Snatch but not nearly as good". I winced at Tom Wilkinson's speech about the crayfish, it was basically lifted from Bricktop's speech about pigs in Snatch. At least Jason Statham wasn't in this one playing the same character he plays in every. single. film. Still, a boring rehash that feels about 5 to 10 years old, when films and tv shows about gangsters were cool. Let's face it --gangsters are pretty played at this point. Your time is better spent on his first two films, and, Guy, rather than making the promised sequel/s, why dont you try something new?

titza gave it an8:
Come on, it's a really funny, exciting movie, with a awesome sountrack.

sean f. gave it a10:
Great direction, great casting, great acting, cool story line. Best film I've seen in ages. Vastly underrated.

RocknRolla Warner Bros. Pictures

RocknRolla
Warner Bros. Pictures