Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Guy Ritchie

Writer:

Guy Ritchie (written by)

Release Date:

5 March 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

A Disgrace to Criminals Everywhere.

Plot:

Four London working class stiffs pool their money to put one in a high stakes card game, but things go wrong and they end up owing half a million pounds and having one week to come up with the cash.

Plot Keywords:

Antique | Drugs | Cannabis | Violence | Gun

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 13 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Jason Flemyng	...	Tom
Dexter Fletcher	...	Soap
Nick Moran	...	Eddie
Jason Statham	...	Bacon
Steven Mackintosh	...	Winston
Nicholas Rowe	...	J
Nick Marcq	...	Charles
Charles Forbes	...	Willie (as Charlie Forbes)
Vinnie Jones	...	Big Chris
Lenny McLean	...	Barry The Baptist
Peter McNicholl	...	Little Chris
P.H. Moriarty	...	Hatchet Harry
Frank Harper	...	Dog
Steve Sweeney	...	Plank
Huggy Leaver	...	Paul

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence, pervasive language, sexuality and drug content.

Runtime:

107 min | 120 min (director's cut)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:M18 (DVD rating) | Singapore:R(A) | Brazil:18 | Argentina:13 | Australia:MA | Canada:16+ (Québec) | Canada:18A (Canadian Home Video rating) | Chile:14 | Denmark:15 | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Germany:16 (bw) | Hong Kong:IIB | Iceland:16 | Ireland:18 | Japan:PG-12 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R18 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Bethnal Green Town Hall, Bethnal Green, London, England, UK

Company:

Summit Entertainment

Trivia:

The football commentary in the pub mentions both writer/director Guy Ritchie and producer Matthew Vaughn as players.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Tom speaks with Nick the Greek about buying weapons, Nick the Greek is playing a fruit machine. We hear the sound, but the machine clearly isn't working.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Bacon: Right. Let's sort the buyers from the spyers, the needy from the greedy, and those who trust me from the ones who don't, because if you can't see value here today, you're not up here shopping. You're up here shoplifting. You see these goods? Never seen daylight...
[...]

Movie Connections:

References An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Soundtrack:

Police and Thieves

Have a butchers...

I was a total and complete sucker for this film.

If I were to write and direct a movie about gangsters or crime, this would be it. I wouldn't change one damn thing. Not a thing. Everything in this film was, to my eye, perfect - casting, the camerawork, the excellent dialogue ("It's been emotional.")

Now I don't have much to compare this to, and I've heard some criticism that it basically draws quite heavily from older British crime dramas. I've got a bunch of these on my queue to rent, but I doubt you could make a crime film better than this.

This film oozes with style, class, dark humor, plot twists and turns, and doesn't drag one bit. The casting and characterization is perfect, and Ritchie isn't afraid to move the cameras around; no pretense is really made here at "realism" - Ritchie doesn't mask the fact that it's a film and he runs with it.

I really don't think of myself as easily impressed, and I have seen a hell of a lot of films in my time, but this one instantly made my Top 10 after only a single viewing. Yes, I'm raving about it, and while it may not be "spiritually enriching" or contain any deep sociological content (which I actually do look for in films), somehow it still scores as one hell of a film; memorable and entertaining, and stands up well to multiple viewings.

I am a bit dismayed to see some of the marketing of this film comparing it to other things like Quentin Tarantino films or Trainspotting. It really does it a disservice because this film really is its own phenomenon and stands on its own two feet; if anything it is similar to Trainspotting and Tarantino films only because it actually has its own bold style.

Can't recommend it enough.