AMG Review of Rock N Rolla

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

It was only a matter of time before Guy Ritchie got around to actually setting one of his rock & roll gangster films in the world of rock & roll, and so we have Rock N Rolla, where it seems like Pete Doherty and Ari Gold have been dropped into the set of #Snatch -- and the only way to date the picture is through its music, as Oasis has been swapped out for the Subways, which can either be read as a savvy update or a general indication of the degeneration of Ritchie and Brit-rock in general, turning from something that aspired to greatness and now settles for formula. Of course, formula can be both comforting and entertaining, and so it is with Rock N Rolla, which does provide some pleasing diversions, particularly when it settles into an old-school punk rock groove, touching on the Clash in full-on reggae mode with the wonderful "Bank Robber" and the English Beat's "Mirror in the Bathroom," or digging through the crates to pull out such relative obscurities as Wanda Jackson's "Funnel of Love," Kim Fowley's "The Trip," or the Sonics' "Have Love Will Travel" (although the latter reads a bit like the filmmakers couldn't get licensing for the Black Keys' recent cover of this garage classic). Some of the contemporary stuff plays pretty well too -- especially the Hives' "Stomp," which builds upon the old-time rock & roll vibe of the rest of the record -- but there is a good dose of by-the-numbers affectedness, which may only be appropriate because that's Ritchie's Achilles heel. That affectedness -- which also surfaces on the dialogue clips peppered throughout the soundtrack -- keeps Rock N Rolla from being full-blast fun, but if it's cherry-picked for its best moments, it can get the job done.