RocknRolla
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: October 8, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
9
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Ritchie concocts a crime-jungle demimonde that's organically linked to the real world, and it's a damn fun one to visit. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterKirk 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! Read full review
80
VarietyJoe Leydon
A cleverly constructed, sensationally stylish and often darkly hilarious seriocomic caper. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene 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. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
A sharp comedy as well as a punk-pulp spree. Don't go if you can't handle Brit slang. ("Grass" = informer.) Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger 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. Read full review
75
PremiereJenni 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." Read full review
70
Film ThreatMark 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. Read full review
70
TimeRichard 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. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleJosh 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. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubNoel 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. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunMichael 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. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
It's fun to see Tom Wilkinson, for instance, with a massive bald spot virtually eating scenery with a knife and fork. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter Travers
RocknRolla is a kickass crime drama that just doesn't know to quit while it's ahead. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
A well-acted and attitudinal action movie, a return to Ritchie's trademark "Mockney" style, which takes amusing and twisted turns. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesSam 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. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam 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. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
If only RocknRolla's characters were at all believable - even in the context of its own cartoon universe. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
As punchy and energetic as the first few moments are, the rest of the film quickly falls back into mediocrity. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Like the filmmaking itself, the violence has no passion, no oomph, no sense of real or even feigned purpose. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
On the plus side, the actors - especially Butler and Wilkinson - work overtime to pump some extra life into the self-conscious script. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
This film's got EVERYTHING, although purists might quibble that it lacks any sliver of plausibility or dramatic interest. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
RocknRolla is a copy of a copy of a valuable original, and you know how faint and unintelligible those can be. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie 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. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael 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. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick 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. Read full review
10
Village VoiceNick Pinkerton
Sum total of scenes that deserved to stay in the final cut: Thandie Newton doing a little shimmying frug. Read full review
0
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
Frenetic and self-conscious to the point of tedium. Read full review
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