With The Man from U.N.C.L.E. set to come out in August, critics are already speculating over whether it will be a hit or a flop, as the director is known for being a bit inconsistent. Here’s a look back at some of Guy Ritchie’s offerings up to now. Some were great, some were not so great…
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
This spectacular directorial debut for Ritchie also sees Jason Statham in a very early role before the long stream of action movies he has been in since. It’s about four friends struggling to come up with a large amount of cash in a matter of days, after a botched poker game. Thugs, weed-growers, hard gangsters, loan sharks and debt collectors collide with each other in a sequence of unexpected events. This is a seriously cool movie and highly original and unique. Some directing techniques had never been used before, like the scene where the man was talking in cockney rhyming slang with English subtitles underneath. The characters are all intriguing and there is a great balance between being serious and being humorous. Vinnie Jones is particularly good as the big, hard debt collector who takes his kid along to beat people up and then tells the child off for swearing.
The camerawork is excellent, the soundtrack is perfect and the beautifully threaded plot has a perfect ending. This is a serious achievement for a debut film and has to be up there with the best directorial debuts of all time.
Snatch (2000)
Some believe that Ritchie managed to improve on his highly regarded debut here, others thought that the second London gangster offering took techniques that were once original and regurgitated them. Either way, it’s still a highly entertaining film. The film sees unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers, and supposedly Jewish jewelers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond. The film once again sees Statham at the heart of the action accompanied by side-kick Steven Graham. After the success of the first film, this one attracted some much bigger names, including Benicio del Toro and Brad Pitt. The latter is fantastic as the bare knuckle boxing champion. The boxing betting in this film is a world apart from real life boxing, where Wladimir Klitschko is preparing to take on underdog Tyson Fury in September, and the people gambling on the fights normally do so from a tip off from a highly dodgy gangster. What’s the likelihood that Mickey (Pitt) the bare knuckle champion is going to take a dive when they tell him to? Not very high. This is a seriously exciting romp from start to finish and a great follow up to Lock Stock.
Revolver (2005)
Just when people were starting to respect Guy Ritchie and talking about how he reinvented the gangster genre he came out with this. Revolver sees Statham play a character called Jake Green who, after seven years in solitary confinement, is released from prison. Over the next couple of years, he amasses a lot of money through gambling and then decides to go after the man who put him behind bars in the first place. To throw a spanner in the works, he’s also diagnosed with a rare disease and has three days to live.
People were excited about Ritchie around this time and he really failed to meet expectations with this one. The storyline is too bulky and doesn’t hold together. It’s like he was trying too hard and just ended up making a mess of it all. The film tries to display its twisted view of an inner psychological battle and ends up just making the viewer feel sick. New directing techniques or ideas that Ritchie tried to adapt from other film makers didn’t pay off and he should have stuck with what he’d done well in his first two films. Revolver was slated by the critics but some fans believe that it is a great film that some people just don’t ‘get’.
RocknRolla (2008)
After the relative failure of Revolver, Ritchie decided to go back to his winning formula and back to London. This time instead of a rigged card came or a rigged boxing match, there’s a real estate scam that puts millions of pounds up for grabs. This obviously attracts some of the city’s undesirables such as tough guys and underworld types and a couple of indestructible Russians who all want to get rich quick. While the criminals vie for the cash a drugged up rock ‘n’ roller who is presumed dead, has a multi-million dollar prize fall into his hands.
This film is a return to the gangster genre that Ritchie excelled at before and he used techniques that had worked for him in the past. It has a very similar concept to Lock Stock and Snatch and if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all, but still it’s pretty entertaining. Perhaps a bit of a guilty pleasure compared to his first two but many viewed it as a return to form.
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
It was a bit of a shock for many when they found out that Guy Ritchie would be directing a big screen adaptation of the famous books, because this was a world away from what he had been doing up to this point. In this blockbuster re-vamp, Sherlock Homes and his stalwart partner John Watson engage in a battle of wits and brawn with a nemesis whose plot is a threat to all of England.
This film received very mixed reviews. Some thought it was brilliant and others thought it was mediocre at best. If you like lots of action and special effects then you would belong to the first camp. But die hard Holmes fans should probably avoid it as it really is just a big blockbuster designed to bring in the masses. There was a follow up to this as well but it’s probably best not to go into that.
So there you have it, quite a mixed bag of films to date from this director, but reserve judgment for now on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (see above) because it could well be a return to form.