Dickness

Guy Ritchie is known by most people as Madonna’s ex-husband, but many of us first knew him as the British director who did a good job of making movies similar in tone and style to the earlier works of Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino made Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. Ritchie made Lock Stock and Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Obviously Tarantino’s early work was superior to that of Ritchie’s, but those two films were both films I thoroughly enjoyed. Ritchie’s work has not been as good in recent years. Tarantino has made some good films in recent years, but really nothing approaching the zenith of his film career, Pulp Fiction.

Ritchie decided to go back to what he does best, making Tarantino-esque crime films based in Britain. Instead of just using a similar tone and style of Quentin, in this film it was almost as if he decided to take parts of Pulp Fiction and make them his own. Tarantino is known for paying homage to some of the films he admired growing up. In his case it was often some martial arts film or an exploitation film he saw at a drive-in. Ritchie was obviously influenced by Tarantino so at least he is paying homage to great films by a top notch director.

I did not really pick up on the many similarities between RockNRolla and Pulp Fiction until I had watched a good portion of the film. I was entertained by the film, but I started noticing things that were eerily familiar. First there is the painting that is of the utmost importance to Uri, the head Russian gangster who wants to build a new soccer stadium. Uri says it is his lucky painting. We never get to see the painting so it is shrouded in mystery similar to the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. It is stolen after he gives it to Lenny, played by the always great Tom Wilkinson. It ends up in the hands of Johnny Quid, the RockNRolla. Johnny also has strong feelings about the painting.

Speaking of Johnny, he is a down and out rock and roll star, who comes upon a valuable commodity belonging to a powerful gangster, why does that sound familiar. Oh yeah it sounds an awful lot like Butch, the down and out boxer from Pulp Fiction, played by Bruce Willis, who also happens to come across a valuable item owned by a powerful gangster. It is a suitcase instead of a picture, but everyone who sees it is impressed by it and we never get to see it.

There are other occurrences which are strangely similar to events from Pulp Fiction that I picked up on. One Two, played by Gerard Butler of 300, dances with the beautiful accountant played by Thandie Newton. You maybe thinking I am going to far by calling Ritchie out for having two people dance in his movie. Sure Pulp Fiction is not the only movie to have a couple dance, but the dancing looks very much like the dance from Pulp Fiction between Mia Wallace and Vincent Vega, Uma Thurman and John Travolta for those who are not familar. Also while they are dancing when they speak their words appear near them in boxes, which seem like a reference to the square Mia makes before going in to Jack Rabbit Slims where they have the dance scene similar to the one in this film. There seem to be too many coincidences so I believe Ritchie was doing this intentionally.

I am not sure why he would intentionally reference Tarantino so much though. Is he giving the finger to those who have compared him to a cheap Tarantino knock off? I am not sure, but he also has a scene where they play music similar to that in Pulp Fiction while someone smokes so my guess would be he is in fact intentionally referencing Pulp Fiction. Maybe he is doing it out of respect for a film maker he truly admires. Maybe I am reaching a little too much and there are really not too many similarities. Oh yeah I forgot about the Russian hit men. First they are engaging in inane but amusing banter in a car before a violent scene suddenly takes place out of nowhere similar to but too much like what happened to Marvin. Yeah maybe I am stretching this premise too much. There was also a scene where the Russian hit men danced around wearing odd leather outfits while they had One Two lying down with a ball gag in his mouth. Good point I do not think anything similar happened in Pulp Fiction.

RockNRolla was everything you would expect from Ritchie if you had seen his earlier films. It was entertaining. There were all sorts of different criminals intermingled in assorted thievery often to ridiculous ends. There were thick British accents which required subtitles, but not nearly as much as Brad Pitt’s piker in Snatch, in fact I think it is possible I could have skipped the subtitles this time and understood it. It was distracting how he kept referencing or taking bits of Pulp Fiction for his own use. Instead of focusing on the film I found myself looking out for Pulp Fiction references. Ultimately I found it entertaining. I respect that Quentin Tarantino does not want to keep making the same movies over and over again. On the other hand I really enjoyed his earlier films so if he does not want to continue making films like that Ritchie does a decent enough job to warrant him continuing to do so.

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