Premiere boos for Ritchie and Madonna
Guy Ritchie and Madonna faced the wrath of the fans when they were booed at the premiere of his new film Revolver – which has already been slated by critics.
The director and his superstar wife made little contact with the crowd of around 2,000 wellwishers who lined the red carpet in London’s Leicester Square to greet them.
Instead they posed for photographs before sweeping into the cinema, with Ritchie defending the film.
He said of the criticism: “I think it was inevitable, the concept of the film is tricky and that’s part of the reason I was attracted to it in the first place.
“The critics have been harsh all the way through my career but it doesn’t affect me. I’ve accepted the rules of the game.”
In contrast to the famous couple, the film’s star, Jason Statham, spent nearly an hour signing autographs.
Madonna, 47, wearing a black sequinned Roberta Cavalli tuxedo dress and with her arm in a matching sling, said it was Ritchie’s night and she enjoyed not having to work the red carpet.
“This is fun for me. I get to dress up and show up,” she said.
Revolver stars Statham as a hustler who comes out of prison and makes a fortune in Las Vegas with a card table con he learned on the inside.
He then falls foul of crooked casino boss Ray Liotta.
The critics have been scathing – some claiming it is even worse than Swept Away, which starred Madonna and went straight to video in the UK.
“After Revolver, Swept Away now looks like Citizen Kane,” the Guardian said.
“Words can not easily express how emphatically this film withholds the pleasures of film going.”
Variety called it “tedious” and “convoluted” while the Hollywood Reporter criticised its “pretentious style” and predicted: “Box office will be modest at best.”
Asked why he did not give Madonna a role in Revolver, Ritchie, 37, who burst on the scene in 1998 with the acclaimed Lock, Stoke and Two Smoking Barrels, replied: “Do you think they would let me get away with that? I did that last time, it didn’t work.
Madonna is happy the filming is over.
“I get more love when he’s not making a movie,” she said.
The singer broke her collarbone and hand and cracked three ribs in a recent riding accident.
She said the sling will be coming off in a week’s time.
