Guy Ritchie stares down the smoking barrel

It's amazing to think that Guy Ritchie is not quite 40 and already he's in the last chance saloon. After the two great follies, Swept Away and Revolver, his new film RocknRolla is make or break. It's an amazing turnaround from the situation a decade ago when the director burst into public consciousness, seemingly out of nowhere, with the gangster caper Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Alas, as quick as a gunshot, Ritchie stopped being the epitome of cool. His cinematic Midas touch deserted him just as he guaranteed his status as gossip column fodder when he waltzed down the aisle and became Mr Madonna. The pop husband then committed a cinematic crime by deciding that it would be a smart move to make a movie starring his wife. The resulting film, Swept Away, was derided by critics and then unceremoniously yanked from British cinema screens, resurfacing as a DVD novelty.

Ritchie seemed stung by the criticism and decided to revert to the tried-and-tested gangster genre. Revolver was released to the sound of critics decrying: "After Revolver, Swept Away now looks like Citizen Kane," and: "It is a stodgy, expensive revenge movie with a pompous belief in its own brilliance. The arrogance could cost Ritchie his Hollywood career."

And so here we are just three years later, and Ritchie is attempting a resurrection. RocknRolla is a rollercoaster noir thriller about the derring-do of a band of no-good London hoods. However, the film already seems dated as it starts with a voiceover narrative, a Ritchie signature, praising London as the epicentre of the financial world spiralling onwards and upwards. It seems that "credit crunch" and "recession" are words that haven't entered the Madonna household.

A "rocknrolla" is someone not satisfied with simply being the biggest drug dealer, or pornographer, or pop star, or any other singular for that matter – they just have to have it all. It stars Gerard Butler as One Two and Idris Elba as Mumbles, street-smart low-end criminals looking to quickly build their reputation in the mob scene. They work for ruthless old-school mobster Lenny Cole (Tom Wilkinson), who is in the process of doing a deal with a Russian billionaire (Karel Roden), who has an office at Wembley Stadium. Cole is being double-crossed by his sexy accountant Stella (Thandie Newton), and is hated by his junkie rock-star stepson (Toby Kebbell). In true Lock, Stock and Ealing-comedy fashion, a series of coincidences and chances end up with a $7m painting being passed from one protagonist to another.

There's nothing too wrong with RocknRolla per se, it's just that if you've watched Lock Stock... or Snatch then you've seen it all before – and done better. All that RocknRolla does is prove that Ritchie is extremely competent at making fast-paced gangster tales, but we knew this already.

Ritchie didn't make it any easier for audiences to accept him as a loveable rogue when he married the most famous person in pop. He has to constantly contend with speculation that his marriage is on the brink of collapse, and is continually painted as being the failure of his household. This is a bit unfair considering that not many careers are as inimitable as his wife's.

Schadenfreude dictates that many wish his marriage would fail, but showing the same determination with which he is trying to rescue his film-making career, the marriage survives. With his career, but not yet his reputation, back on track, it seems that Ritchie, despite his misplaced ambition to be the Godard of the Brit crime caper, really does have the luck of a lottery winner.

'RocknRolla' opens on 5 September