Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels

Starring: Jason Statham, Vinnie Jones, Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Sting
Directed by: Guy Ritchie
Rating: R
Genre: Action
1999

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Four friends in England wager all their money on a card game and lose. Now, they owe half a million pounds and have one week to pay. To raise the money, they come up with a scheme to steal from a group of robbers. From here, things spiral out of control.

Review:

Tim: This is a very impressive debut from from director Guy Ritchie. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels is a fast-paced action/comedy that will keep you fairly entertained. I love the film's tagline- "a disagrace to criminals everywhere."

Ritchie has a great directing style. His follow-up film, Snatch, consequently, if much better than this one. However, to understand Ritchie as a director, it is important to watch both. This really shows the ways in which he progresses and learns as a director.

The story here is filled with dozens of characters, and they are all after either two shotguns, money, or drugs. It is hilarious to watch how they all come together in the end for a very disastrous conclusion. Ritchie does an excellent job keeping all the characters and plots separate yet intertwined, and brings them all together in the end.

As viewers, we need to pay very close attention to the dialogue. Ritchie uses the everyday street vernacular of London, and everyone has a thick English accent. Many viewers (myself included for half the movie) will find it very difficult to understand what is going on. This is the biggest problem of the film, although I understand and respect Ritchie's reasoning for this.

Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels is a decent film, full of evidence that Guy Ritchie can really make a name for himself as a director. It is important to understand his origins, and this film shows a young director making a pretty impressive debut film.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Snatch, The Transporter, The Italian Job, Gone in 60 Seconds