Defying the laws of nature is rarely a good idea. Just look at genetically-modified food. Learned people assure us that it's perfectly safe, but consumers all around the globe refuse to buy. This is no mystery. On some deep, instinctive level, the idea of splicing, say, a fish gene into a plant, just doesn't seem right.
The same is true in the world of film. Take British director Guy Ritchie's latest, "Revolver." Ritchie attempts to splice "Ocean's 11" with "Fight Club" and "The Matrix," and sure enough, it just ain't right.
Ritchie is known for gangster flicks, wicked, post-Tarantino excursions in slam-bang, hardboiled irony such as "Snatch" and "Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels." After marrying Madonna, however, the director's career went off the rails with a vanity flick for his wife, "Swept Away." With "Revolver," Ritchie seems to be returning to what worked before, namely gangsters. In fact, if you see the trailer for "Revolver," you'd be convinced it's another flick in the style of "Lock, Stock."