ROCKNROLLA

Written and Directed by Guy Ritchie
Starring Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Thandie Newton, Mark Strong and Jeremy Piven


(I would ordinarily list a quote from the film that struck me at this point but damned if I could understand half of what the rock n rollas were spouting on about half the time.)

Boys will be boys, even when they’re men who haven’t been boys for a very long time. They like to get their guns out and smack ‘em around in the other boys’ faces, all in an effort to prove who the baddest boy on the playground is. It doesn’t matter to them that the playground has progressed into the entire city or that the guns have gone from plastic toys to the real deal. The game may have gotten heavier and plenty more serious, and the boys may have grown into the more rugged bodies of men, but they’re still bumbling little boys at heart, too scared to do right and even more so to be a failure. This particular London playground that embodies all this manliness plays home to the modern gangster movie, ROCKNROLLA, and the boy at the top of the mountain is none other than Guy Ritchie.


Ritchie has had a rough go at establishing himself as one of today’s big boys as of late. He burst on to the scene in 1998 with LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS. The fast moving action and even faster dialogue grabbed a lot of men by their own sensitive boys, squeezed hard and made them feel like bigger men. (Personally, I couldn’t make out a single word being said and lost track about 20 minutes in so I never made it that far.) Ritchie’s momentum grew into a Hollywood step with his follow-up, SNATCH, but his favour quickly faded after his critical disaster, SWEPT AWAY. I mean, it wasn’t great but critics went in with their own guns blazing. You simply don’t make a vanity project outside of your genre with your superstar wife, especially when that wife (or soon to be ex-wife) is Madonna, one of the most critically panned actresses of all time. No one even noticed his last release, REVOLVER, but now Ritchie is back. The problem is he isn’t really better than ever; he’s just back where he left off before everything was, well, swept away.


Lucky for Ritchie, he’s got a great group of mates along for this ride. ROCKNROLLA’s cast is top notch no matter what Ritchie’s expansive script calls for. Whether you’re watching Gerard Butler dance entirely out of step with Thandie Newton at a party while exchanging brief quips about a heist job or Tom Wilkinson being a right bastard (which he does so well) as the man who runs the streets or Butler dancing yet again, this time in a close embrace with good pal, Handsome Bob (Tom Hardy), before he is shipped off to prison, there is always a sense of playfulness that never loses sight of purpose. The purpose on the other hand is a little too far out of reach. There are bad guys and good guys who are essentially bad guys themselves and they are all involved in some sort of construction zoning law shakedown that touches the junkies of the world as well as the Russian mafia and pivots around this one missing lucky painting, which, with a quick nod to the mysterious contents of a certain briefcase in the modern gangster classic, PULP FICTION, is never seen on screen.


Complicated? Yes. Overly so? Maybe, only time will tell there. A good, fun time? For sure. Ritchie is sharp and has a keen eye for style. He hasn’t quite mastered the balance between sleek and simple yet, as his simpler bits are rendered somewhat puny in comparison with his flare. Still, you can tell he’s having a great time piecing it all together. There are the dirty, dark sets, the driving pulse of the often-obscure soundtrack choices (no more cheeky early Madonna pop tracks to be found here) and the sexy voice-over (a clearly spoken narration that was my personal saviour at times) to provide constant entertainment. My hopes for Ritchie though are that ROCKNROLLA does not amount to he himself being a “Rock n Rolla” – a boy pretending to be living large instead of actually living it. Next time out, I want to see Ritchie one step closer to being a real man.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: High School Trick or Treaters

I happened to be out on Halloween night on a way to a friend’s place for some good eats and leftover candy. I couldn’t help but notice the obscene amount of teenagers parading around in costumes. When was Halloween taken away from the kids? Oblivious selfishness aside, the high number of teenage trick or treaters certainly explains why HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 placed fifth on Friday, plummeting nearly 90% week on week. Still, all those teenagers went home that night, overdosed on candy and bounced their way back to the theatres throughout the rest of the weekend, sending the Disney juggernaut back to the top of a mild frame.

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 fended off ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO this weekend to remain on top despite an overall drop of 64%. The front-heavy title was expected to drop off drastically and the numbers it posted Friday led many to believe it would lose its place as king of the prom. By the end of the weekend though, ZACK AND MIRI, its closest competitor, missed by nearly $5 million. The R-rated Kevin Smith directed pic only managed a third place finish on Friday and finished with a modest $10 million, when prognosticators were expecting closer to the high teens. On average, it performed below HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL as well so its lower turnout cannot be simply chalked up to a lesser theatre count or its R-rating. Maybe had Smith made an actual porno, he would have a fared better.


The film that opened better than ZACK AND MIRI on Friday was the unexpected CHANGELING. The first of two Clint Eastwood films expected this year stars Angelina Jolie and drew in big adult crowds despite the critical split on the film’s merits. CHANGELING pulled in the highest per screen average of any film in the Top 10 but saw its returns dwindle throughout the course of the weekend so this latest Jolie Oscar bait looks to be going the same route as last summer’s A MIGHTY HEART.


Not surprisingly, the number one movie on Halloween was SAW V. This would mark the first time a SAW film climbed to number one in its second frame. Overall though, it still dropped off a frightening 66% and is trailing SAW 4 by about 10%. In fact, this is definitely the least successful SAW since the inaugural gorefest. Meanwhile, SAW VI is currently in development.


Below the Top 10, a number of arthouse pictures performed to varying results. The most notable was Guy Ritchie’s ROCKNROLLA expansion. The film was playing to diminishing results in limited release and added 807 screens this week to find itself with a poor take of $1.75 million. It’s $2K average was a far cry from a number of other limited runs. RACHEL GETTING MARRIED dropped off less than 2% in its fourth frame. The Jonathan Demme Oscar contender has grossed a total of $3.8 million so far. Mike Leigh’s HAPPY-GO-LUCKY added another 41 screens and saw its gross increase by another 65% over last weekend. Kristen Scott Thomas’s performance is I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG is getting rave reviews and those reviews are driving in the audiences. The film added another 11 screens this week and saw it’s gross improve by 110%. Still, higher averages can be found for the Charlie Kaufman film, SYNECHDOCHE NEW YORK ($11K) and surprisingly, NOAH’S ARC: JUMPING THE BROOM ($14K).

NEXT WEEK: Opening on nearly 4000 screens, there will be no match for MADAGASCAR 2. Two other comedies will compete for different male demographics – the white bred ROLE MODELS, starring Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott and the urban skewed SOUL MEN, starring Samuel L. Jackson and the late Bernie Mac.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: The Reign of Payne

Calling it a reign is most certainly premature but seeing as how movies have a shelf life shorter than milk these days, winning one weekend is a lot like a reign. The reign this week belongs to MAX PAYNE, starring Mark Wahlberg. The film, which is based on a popular video game (as opposed to all the games based on unpopular video games, I suppose), pulled in $18 million after a $7 million strong Friday. This is significantly lower than Wahlberg’s summer entry, THE HAPPENING, which opened north of $30 million but that isn’t quite fair. It was summertime. The name, M. Night Shaymalan preceded the title. MAX PAYNE would probably be better compared to last fall’s WE OWN THE NIGHT or the previous spring’s SHOOTER. MAX PAYNE falls right in between these two and as long as he keeps coming out on top, than Wahlberg will continue to pull up the rear of the Hollywood A-list.


The week’s two other top entries battled it out and finished within very close proximity of each other. Ultimately though, audiences flocked to THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES like bees to honey (c’mon, you were expecting that) over Oliver Stone’s potentially premature biopic of George W. Bush, W. THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES played on 500 screens less than W. and pulled off the highest average in the Top 10. I guess people were more in the mood for something sugary sweet than something pretending to be real. This doesn’t mean that W. is a disappointment. Given that American audiences may be exhausted talking about President Bush after 8 years and that audiences have not shown a lot of support for many political films in recent years, it was not clear at all whether Stone would be able to make this work. Critics are split on his success but the film brought in a solid average and should manage a modest take overall.


As far as platform releases go, a number of films found their expansions holding up quite well. The highest per screen average of any film this week belonged to Mike Leigh’s HAPPY-GO-LUCKY. The film added but five screens and saw it’s gross increase by nearly 50% for a healthy average of $12K. Guy Ritchie’s ROCKNROLLA added a little over a dozen screens and saw its average drop from $20K last week to just under $6K now. Still, a wide release is imminent and it should play well to the action crowd. This next one I am following very closely, if only because I feel it to be one of the year’s best and I pray it finds the audience it so deserves … Jonathan Demme’s RACHEL GETTING MARRIED added another 42 screens this week and it still average over $10K per screen for the third weekend in a row. Do not miss this picture. I mean it.


Oh, wait, I forgot about SEX DRIVE. Whatever, so did everyone else.

NEXT WEEK: This should be interesting. For the last five years, a SAW movie has come out just before Halloween and built on or maintained its audience from the year before, within reason. There is no reason other than sheer exhaustion to think that this year should be any different but there’s a new kid in town. Actually, there are several of them. Disney has decided to counter program with HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3. I don’t know … I think SAW’s days are done. Warner Bros. throws its hat into the ring, why I do not know, with PRIDE AND GLORY, starring Edward Norton and Colin Farrell. And Disney gives us back THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS one more time to continue the tradition of releasing it year on year. They also just re-released it on DVD and blu-ray so why would we go see it in theatres again? Oh, right, it’s in 3D.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Little Dogs, Big Business

Last week, I was shocked. Well, not so much shocked as disappointed. This week, I’m not the least bit surprised. There it is. BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA still sitting pretty on top of the box office chart. I guess we’ll be seeing litters of little kids dressed like fashionable dogs this Halloween. Their parents can carry them around in little purses while they wear giant sunglasses.


This week’s top debut might come as a surprise for some but not I. QUARANTINE opened stronger than most expected, capturing the number one spot on Friday. It was no match for the family friendly pooches though and it ultimately lost the weekend to the dogs. Still, it does have the highest average in the Top 10 and it did beat out Ridley Scott’s BODY OF LIES, starring Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio. Huge stars, giant director, no interest. The film did solid business but nowhere near what it should have given the caliber of names attached. It did feel like they might have been trying a little hard. Don’t try at all next time, Ridley. That approach worked wonders for the chihuahuas.


The Top 10 saw two other flat debuts and one disappointing expansion. The first is football film, THE EXPRESS, starring Dennis Quaid. After this spring’s dud, LEATHERHEADS, Hollywood will probably spend a little more time in the huddle before rushing any other football picks to the 10-yard line. And Gil Kenan’s follow-up to the Mouton d’Or winner for Best Animated Feature, MONSTER HOUSE, CITY OF EMBER, flickered out in 10th place. Maybe the underground city could have used a few more pint size pups. I’m just saying … Chihuahuas clearly equal gold. It worked for the Taco Bell people and Paris Hilton. Lastly, THE DUCHESS had been playing so well in limited release, it was only natural to go wide but the film failed to connect with the rest of the continent. The trials of beautiful royalty didn't seem to matter much to rural America as the film saw its averages drop from tens of thousands to under $3K.


On the specialty front, RACHEL GETTING MARRIED continued to dazzle. 18 screens were added in the last weekend before it goes wider. While it pulled in a per screen average of over $17K, two other films picked up per screens of over $20K. The first is the seemingly drastic departure for Mike Leigh, HAPPY-GO-LUCKY. Well, it’s a departure in the sense that it is supposed to be happy, which Leigh’s films generally are not. The second is a film that so needs to do well in order to save a flailing career. Guy Ritchie’s supposed return to form, ROCK’N’ROLLA, has the highest average of any film in release on just 7 screens. The film goes wide by Halloween and goes head to head with wife, Madonna’s directorial debut, FILTH AND WISDOM, next week. My money’s on Guy; don’t tell Madge.


NEXT WEEK: Are you ready for a painful experience? MAX PAYNE, that is. The video game adaptation starring Mark Wahlberg is the week’s biggest release. SEX DRIVE has the teen sex romp market covered. Oliver Stone’s highly anticipated Bush biography, W. has the controversy market covered. And THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES has the cherished-literature-turned-into-sappy-feel-good-movie market in check.

Fall Foliage: October

BLACK SHEEP'S FALL FILM PREVIEW


Boo! It’s October and that means time for scares that make the hair on the back of your neck stand straight up. (By the way, you should really do something about that.) And so, the second part in Black Sheep’s three part preview of the fall film schedule should focus on what Hollywood has planned to make you pee your pants. There’s only one problem with this though. I don’t care much for scary movies. In fact, I try to avoid them whenever I can and there is no reason why that should be any different in this article. I’ll try my best to grow a pair for next year. In the meantime, how about a different kind of scare?

What could be scarier than adorably awkward it-boy, Michael Cera (JUNO, SUPERBAD), roaming around New York City all night with a girl he just met? Alright, maybe everything but you’ll be hard pressed to find something more endearing and real than NICK & NORA'S INFINITE PLAYLIST. From the trailer, it looks as though Cera is ready to give us another fresh take on disastrously uncomfortable social interaction and he’s going to give it to us in the underground New York punk scene, well, at least some of the less hardcore corners of the scene. This boy meets girl, boy pretends to be girl’s boyfriend for five minutes, boy and girl inevitably fall hopelessly in love over the span of one night story should keep the indie crowd infinitely giddy.

I know this one is scary. This one is about religion (cue scary ghost noises and eerie organ music). Infamously frightening fella, at least to politicians in his past life as a television pundit, Bill Maher takes on organized religion in RELIGULOUS. No religion is left unscathed in this guerilla-style documentary from BORAT director, Larry Charles. Given that Maher himself is an atheist, you know that his cup of sarcasm will runneth over. The only question left to be answered is not whether God exists but rather whether the film going public will turn to follow Maher as their new God.

Fear doesn’t only happen when someone jumps out from behind the bushes and lunges at you with a bloody meat cleaver. Just ask Robert Deniro and Barry Levinson. They know a whole other kind of fear. Like the fear that happens when you sink millions of dollars into a big tongue and cheek Hollywood picture and it doesn’t find domestic distribution after playing prominently at two high profile film festivals. Reactions to WHAT JUST HAPPENED? (a question I’m sure both veterans were asking themselves after each of the festivals in question) had not been beaming but the film, a tale of two weeks in the life of a failing Hollywood producer, has been through a couple of facelifts and is now ready for its public.

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, now that was scary. So we can certainly count on the Oscar-winning director of this 1991 classic to deliver some intense psychological fear with his latest, RACHEL GETTING MARRIED. Alright, I’m stretching again but it will definitely be at the very least unwieldy when black sheep (sorry, I had to), Kym (Anne Hathaway) returns from rehab to attend her sister’s nuptials. Demme looks to be keeping his approach simple with an indie-tinged flavour while Hathaway continues to assert herself as major player in young Hollywood. She could miss the mark entirely with this dark turn but I for one am curious to see if she can actually pull it off. Academy Award nominee, Anne Hathaway … now that’s scary.

I think I finally got it. This is definitely frightening. Imagine you started a promising career as a filmmaker. Your first film, let’s call it LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS was an international indie smash that captured the attention of Hollywood, making it possible to snag the likes of Brad Pitt for your follow up, uh, let’s say it’s called, SNATCH. North American audiences eat it up and you’re sitting pretty until you decide to indulge in the ultimate vanity project, a remake of an Italian classic, maybe SWEPT AWAY, starring your pop superstar wife. The problem here is that your infamous wife is the Hollywood equivalent of the a black cat walking underneath a giant ladder being used to clean up the 13 mirrors you just broke. You are now the laughing stock of the film industry and before you know it, your name goes from Guy Ritchie to Madonna’s husband. Well, Mr. Ritchie has found himself a chance at redemption with a return to his Brit-gangsta roots in ROCKNROLLA. Scoring Gerard Butler for the lead should fare better for him, I think.

Also in October … Walt Disney goes to Taco Bell in BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA … Dennis Quaid takes on college ball and prejudice all at once in THE EXPRESS … Simon Pegg continues to woo North American audiences in HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS & ALIENATE PEOPLE … MONSTER HOUSE director returns with a family take on a human race gone underground in CITY OF EMBER … QUARANTINE continues the trend of faux reality low budget video work called film … SEX DRIVE is another teen sex comedy, this time the hero is in a big donut costume … Ridley Scott, Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, BODY OF LIES, period … Greg Kinnear takes on the big automobile company after they steal his prototype for windshield wipers in FLASH OF GENIUS (clearly not referring to the decision to make this movie … Mark Wahlberg joins the gaming generation in MAX PAYNE … George W. Bush meets Oliver Stone in W. … Dakota Fanning and Jennifer Hudson are on the run in THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES … The whole gang is back for their first time on the big screen in HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 … Angelina Jolie hopes to have some of Clint Eastwood’s Oscar gold rub off on her in CHANGELING … It wouldn’t be Halloween if it weren’t for SAW V … THE BROTHERS BLOOM boasts a great cast (Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel Weisz) despite a not so great plot (con-men siblings) … A freaky mystery revolves around Anne Hathaway in PASSENGERS … Edward Norton and Colin Farrell are both brothers and cops in PRIDE AND GLORY … CROSSING OVER is an ensemble piece starring Harrison Ford and Sean Penn … Famed writer, Charlie Kaufman (ADAPTATION) tackles directing in SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK … And on Halloween itself, perpetually amateurish director, Kevin Smith tackles the porn industry with ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO.

Next week, November is a time for thanks.