Like other reviewers, I find Guy Ritchie very watchable. His cockney criminals are a delight to watch, all of them killing a human as easily as they might a fly and delivering punchlines all the way. Rirchie's screenplay brims with action and razor sharp dialogue for the first hour, then - very sadly - it loses direction.

The blueprint for ROCKNROLLA was SNATCH (UK, 2000), probably Ritchie's best, most rounded effort, with characters that pop out of the screen.

ROCKNROLLA does not quite match that highly original early Ritchie flick, it is unfortunately too long by easily 20 minutes, and its characters by and large do not stand out as much.

That said, Butler and Hardy make unlikely lovers who double up as criminals, Butler and Thandie have the briefest, least passionate love scene I have watched in some time, a real damp squib, and Tom Wilkinson as the fiendish Lenny Cole, Idris Elba as the ever supportive sidekick to Butler, and Mark Strong as the irrepressible Archy really steal the show.

Great cinematography, action sequences by David Higgs.

In London, the British mob boss Lenny Cole (Tom Wilkinson) rules the growing real estate business using a corrupt Councilor (Jimi Mistry) for the bureaucratic services and his henchman Archy (Mark Strong) for the dirty work. When he lures the small time criminals One Two (Gerard Butler) and Mumbles (Idris Elba) in a transaction, they lose their property and owe two million pounds to Lenny. Meanwhile the Russian entrepreneur and Russian mob boss Uri Omovich (Karel Roden) meets Lenny for a real estate business and Lenny charges seven-million Euros for the deal; Uri accepts, calls his accountant Stella (Thandie Newton) to laundry and raise the necessary funds and lends his lucky painting to Lenny to bring success and fortune to their business. However Stella double-crosses Uri and hires One Two and Mumbles to steal the amount while the painting is stolen from Lenny's wall by his addicted rocker stepson Johnny Quid (Toby Kebbell).

"Rocknrolla" is another great movie of Guy Ritchie in the same style of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". The complex and intelligent screenplay entwines characters and funny situations and the result is an entertaining movie with witty lines and excellent acting. Tom Wilkinson is fantastic in the role of a powerful crime lord. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Rocknrolla"