RocknRolla (8/10)

by Tony Medley

Runtime: 114 minutes.

If you like your movies convoluted, but fast paced and high tempo, this is right up your alley. I hesitate to even try to tell the plot because it is Byzantine, at best. But, basically, Lenny Cole (Tom Wilkinson) is a corrupt city boss in London who gets things done and is rolling in graft. He scams two grifters, One Two (Gerard Butler) and Mumbles (Idris Elba), then tries to scam a Russian, Uri (Karel Roden, a dead ringer for a young Michael York), which causes a clash between Lenny’s “Old School,” and Uri’s “new school.”

This is a director’s movie, and Michael Ritchie is in rare form. The film cuts back and forth with unique camera angles and lighting. Thrown into the mix is a sexy accountant, Stella (Thandie Newton), who either falls for One Two or is fallen for, or, maybe, both.

Toby Kebbell plays Johnny Quid, Lenny’s foster son, who is a really screwed up rocker. There are so many characters, including profane rapper Ludacris along with Jeremy Piven, who, as usual, gives as good a performance as anyone in the film, that I gave up trying to keep everyone straight, or even follow the plot too closely. That would have been work. I just sat back and enjoyed the banter and quirky filmmaking at which Ritchie excels.