Guy Ritchie bouncing back? Maybe...

Could it be? Could the Great Britian gospel of gangster still have some gasps of life and garner some gold under the direction of godfather Guy?

It's been 10 years since Ritchie and producer Matthew Vaughn brought a new face to the British Crime dramedy genre with LOCK STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS, the low budget film that launched the once-promising careers of Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones, and Guy Ritchie as a young and innovative director. When Ritchie and Vaughn followed two years later with SNATCH, making their first big splash in the US market, the sky seemed to be the limit.

Enter Madonna and SWEPT AWAY. It seems that Guy's creativity and career was to go way of the title. He and Matthew Vaughn parted ways (a good move on Vaughn's party, who went on to produce and direct LAYER CAKE). Ritchie took another shot at the British Crime caper with REVOLVER, but missed horribly. Most of you probably have never even heard of REVOLVER as it had an extremely limited release Stateside after garnering low box-office numbers and atrocious reviews during it's domestic UK release (I had been living in London during it's release in 2005, and I must say that Jason Statham with long hair is just not a good look).



It seemed that Ritchie was through. Without Vaughn at his side as producer, his return to familiar territory had failed with REVOLVER. But now, three years later, Ritchie is back with ROCKNROLLA, another highly stylized, heavily postured Limey gangster flick, but from the reaction at festival screenings, this one might actually not be a stinker.

If ROCKNROLLA succeeds at coming at all close to the popularity of SNATCH, Ritchie will certainly be back on top of his game. The industry seems to have some faith in the return of Ritchie, as he's been picked up to direct the 2010 release of SHERLOCK HOLMES, a script which he also penned. No, this is not the 'other' 2010 Sherlock project staring Sacha Baron-Cohen as Holmes and Will Ferrel as Watson. Ritchie's SHERLOCK will be an action-thriller flick staring Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as a less-than-bumbling Dr. Watson.

So, is Ritchie's career back on track? Possibly. But I'm holding my breath until this weekend when ROCKNROLLA hits US theaters.