RocknRolla – Blu-ray Disc Review

February 16, 2009 – 12:10 am - Posted by: Justin Sluss

Tags: Digital Copy, Gerard Butler, Guy Ritchie, Idris Elba, Jeremy Piven, Ludacris, Mark Strong, Thandie Newton, Toby Kebbell, Tom Hardy, Tom Wilkinson, Warner

has an average rating of 7.4 on IMDb
1080p in VC-1 on a 25gb disc
Dolby TrueHD 5.1 & Dolby Digital 5.1
with HD featurettes & Digital Copy
–
– 2008
– 115 minutes
– Warner
–
This uses 18.9GB for the movie out of 21.6GB total.

Overall Verdict – Recommended

Buy it for $7.99 @ Amazon.com

— Review written by: Justin Sluss & Danielle Byington —

Trailer:

A Clip from the Film:

The Movie Itself was both Written & Directed by Guy Ritchie who has brought you such classic films in the past as 1998′s “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and one of my personal favorites 2000′s “Snatch“. His last few films after “Snatch” like 2002′s “Swept Away” with his wife at the time Madonna and then recently with 2005′s “Revolver” have well — not really been that great of films to the general overall consensus, let’s put it at that. Here though with his latest, “RocknRolla“, he’s totally reinvented and really proven himself with a new original concept that yes bares a slight resemblence to “Snatch” in maybe a more wealthy part of London but I’ll be damned if it’s not intriguing and a blast to watch. Anyway, this film is a bit more sophisticated I guess in the Writer/Director’s eyes. The real concept here of a “RocknRolla” is basicaly your English criminal-type that works similar to the mafia in ways. The story involves our 2nd in charge “Archie” (Mark Strong) who’s constantly having to help our main man in charge “Lenny Cole” (Tom Wilkinson). Lenny Cole kindly will remind you of a nicer and obviously more stupid version of “Brick Top” (the bad guy) from Guy Ritchie‘s “Snatch” at times, in fact the movie itself does seem like “Snatch 2.0” — a little anyway. It’s something new though, don’t get me wrong. You have the different groups that are all having their stories that intersect like “Pulp Fiction” but not skipping around in time.

The other two groups we have consist of first “One Two” (Gerard Butler), “Mumbles” (Idris Elba) and their now openly homosexual partner in crime (literally) “Handsome Bob” (Tom Hardy). This group reminds you a bit of “Turkish” and his friends in “Snatch” — namely Gerard Butler‘s character. The next group of characters we have are the Russian mob in London, led by “Uri” (Karel Roden) who is trying to deal with our friend Lenny Cole to help build a stadium in London. Problem is, our friend Lenny Cole is trying to pull off real-estate scam that turns horribly wrong. Along come some of our other (large) cast of characters such as a lovely female accountant name “Stella” (Thandie Newton), two record producers “Roman” (Jeremy Piven) and “Mickey” (Ludacris). The whole problem arises when the Russian mobster loans his “lucky painting” to the British mobster Lenny Cole and it ends up stolen by his stepson, “Johnny Quid” (Toby Kebbell) — a former junkie / true “rock n’ roller” who plays in a punk band.

Overall, I have to say I was really impressed by this outing from Ritchie. It was certainly much better than “Revolver” and almost as good as “Snatch“. I think fans of his past work will definitely enjoy this film and I give it a recommendation. The Soundtrack to the film is really awesome which you’ll hear me discuss a bit further down in my audio quality section of the review.

— Synopsis (above) and bonus (bottom) written by: Justin Sluss —

Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the VC-1 codec on a BD-25 (25 gigabyte single-layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio. The general look of the film starts with its ashy color palette, additionally played out by the neutral tones found in the wardrobe and set design. This theme of color really gives the feel for the idea of an overcast-ridden London setting, as well as make the viewer feel the lack of a “bright side” in this underworld of crime and under-the-table money. The black level is almost solid, but falling just slightly off from thorough inkiness. Fleshtones are also effected by the cool-hued look of the picture, appearing accurate at times in well lit conditions, but touching a tad towards the brown side in the more “gray” tinted scenes. The amount of detail present is fairly good, but no excess detail to be seen in the small perks, such as facial pores, and textures of fabric in the wardrobe. Overall, the video quality for this release receives a “4 Star Rating“.

— Video (above) & audio (below) written by: Danielle Byington —

Audio Quality on this release is presented in both Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround and Dolby Digital 5.1 @640kbps. For starters, the alternative music accompanying the “sex, thugs, and rock n’ roll” content strongly shines with this audio track, really performing with clarity from the front channels, with much rear channel and bass presence. As you may imagine with such a film, there are many action sequences working out the surround as well, with sound effects like gun shots, breaking glass, and even slaps to the face, all being presented realistically, and at times making use of various channels. Also of significance, because the film does not simply ride on huge action, the dialogue is pristine, and is never dampened by the soundtrack or foley. Overall, this impressive audio track receives a “4.5 Star Rating“.

Bonus Materials on this release are presented in both Hi-Def and Standard Definition video using VC-1 and sound in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo @192kbps. Since the variety in video quality varies, I will be noting accordingly below after the runtimes for featurettes.

• Audio Commentary by Writer/Director Guy Ritchie
• “Deleted Scene: Will You Put the Cigarette Out?” (2:00 – SD)
• “Blokes, Birds and Backhanders: Inside RocknRolla” (15:03 – HD)
• “Guy’s Town” (8:32 – HD)

Overall these bonus materials we get here are actually impressive and serve as great enjoyment after the second or third watching of the film. The Digital Copy is always nice to see included. My only real complaint would be they didn’t include anything in regards to the film’s marvelous soundtrack which is available for purchase on iTunes and other retailers.

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

Screenshots:

NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.

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