The British Gangster Trilogy. Then he could make another British Gangster Trilogy. And another after that.

Revolver was not good. Appreciated the effort though.

Where does RockNRolla stand? In between. A lot of good stuff...some funny dialogue and character interaction (especially amongst Gerard Butler, Idris Elba (Stringer Bell on the Wire!) and the Handsome Bob character. (They had some great interaction and should be the stars of another movie...one with an actual plot.) But Tom Wilkinson was a one-note bad guy, the Russian villain was boring, and the plot...weak. It all centers around a deal between the Russian and Wilkinson to buy off people to develop land...but then Thandie Newton, the Russian's accountant, tells Butler and his "Wild Bunch" when the 7 million Euros are being withdrawn, they rob them, craziness ensues. Oh, and a painting the Russian gave Wilkie is stolen by the "RockNRolla", a druggie rock n roll star.

Basically after the set up it's just mix and match scenes until the end. The painting bounces around. A few double crosses and bits of violence. But nothing really escalates or moves. The movie starts slow...gets interesting for a while...then withers to a slow unremarkable finish.

OK...a couple spoilers here. There are several missteps toward the end as well. One: there are a couple of badass Russian hitmen, but after great introductions, they get an offscreen death. This I debated with my friend I saw the movie with...she said she didn't need to see them die. I disagree. If they're built up to be the ultimate badasses, the audience needs the catharsis of seeing them die. It's like Obiwan and Vader walking into the hallway and the blast doors come down. And when they open, Obi is dead. OK, you get what happened, but seeing it is half the fun. Also, the fate of another major character is COMPLETELY UNRESOLVED. As in, does he/she live or die? Who knows. Plus one of the key plot elements of the film, the painting, is wrapped up offscreen as well.

I can see why WB doesn't want to do a wide release. Not really that good. I'd put it down as a solid rental when it comes out on DVD, but really not worth much more than that.

Ritchie is talented, and there is a LOT good in the film in individual scenes in terms of direction, writing, and acting. But it doesn't add up to much. (Though it's a ton better than Revolver, which had absolutely NO story.) Ritchie really needs to find a plot and story worthy of his characters...cause this aint it.