Lengthy earlier than Gerard Butler was tasked with defending the president within the Has Fallen collection, and Tom Hardy braved the post-apocalyptic wastelands in Mad Max: Fury Highway, the duo teamed up with a slew of different stars to guide one among Man Ritchie‘s most underrated movies. Now, after being solely accessible to hire or buy on most digital platforms, it is lastly accessible to stream because of Roku’s new ad-free service, Howdy.
We’re speaking, after all, concerning the 2008 motion thriller traditional RocknRolla, which was Ritchie’s fifth function movie that adopted different favorites corresponding to Lock, Inventory, and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and Revolver. There was a romantic comedy sandwiched in there as effectively known as Swept Away, however we’ll by no means converse of that once more. Taking in a modest $25 million on the field workplace, RocknRolla wasn’t precisely a runaway hit, however within the years since its launch it is turn into a cult-classic of kinds in Ritchie’s filmography that does not get almost the popularity that it ought to.
Along with Butler and Hardy, RocknRolla additionally options the abilities of Idris Elba, Tom Wilkinson, Thandiwe Newton, Mark Sturdy, Toby Kebbell, and Jeremy Piven. Highlightling Ritchie’s return to the London Underground for yet one more caper that divided critics, RocknRolla was definitely darker than the director’s earlier choices, however a film that Roger Ebert nonetheless known as “loads of enjoyable” in its supply, and rightfully so. One solely has to take a look at the film’s synopsis to see it is chalked filled with all the things that the director has turn into recognized for:
“Previous-school mobster Lenny Cole (Wilkinson) guidelines London’s underworld with an iron fist and a rating of well-greased palms. As big-time gangsters and petty crooks all scramble to get their minimize of a Russian mobster’s crooked land deal, street-wise hustler One Two (Butler) tries to play either side of the fence because the profitable deal falls into the lap of Lenny’s presumed-dead son.”
Will ‘RocknRolla’ Ever Get A Sequel?
Maybe no different movie of Ritchie’s was arrange higher for a sequel than RocknRolla. It was proper there on the finish of the film on the title card that learn, “Johnny, Archy and the Wild Bunch will likely be again in The Actual RocknRolla.” Nevertheless, nothing has materialized within the final 17 years apart from a number of tidbits of knowledge right here and there that does not give us loads of hope proper now.
Whereas Ritchie has said up to now that there is a accomplished script for the RocknRolla sequel, his busy schedule has been one of many causes the film has by no means been capable of transfer ahead. As of proper now, it has but to even be confirmed by any studio, that means do not maintain your breath ready for it to look.
Complicating issues even additional is a authorized dispute between Ritchie and author/actor Mickey de Hara. He claims that Ritchie employed him to write down the script for The Actual RocknRolla, which included components from his personal life. When the movie by no means got here to fruition, de Hara alleges that Ritchie reworked his script into the 2019 movie The Gents, whereas retaining among the similar characters and plot factors. The director, after all, has denied all of the claims, and as of now, the authorized matter continues to be ongoing.
For sure, the possibilities of The Actual RocknRolla really taking place are slim to none, however that is okay. Ritchie has loads of different issues to do, together with a brand new motion thriller with Henry Cavill titled Within the Gray, and a black comedy with Benedict Cumberbatch, Rosamund Pike, and Anthony Hopkins known as Spouse & Canine. Launch dates on these have but to be secured, as the previous is in post-production, and the latter continues to be filming.
Within the meantime, you possibly can catch RocknRolla now on Howdy, which is Roku’s new ad-free service for motion pictures and TV exhibits. A subscription will run you simply $2.99/month, which, nowadays of Netflix, Disney+, and others climbing their costs, is a fairly affordable deal.
RocknRolla
- Launch Date
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September 5, 2008
- Runtime
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114 minutes