Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
1998 · Directed by Guy Ritchie
Original language: English
- comedy
- crime
The story
A card shark and his unwillingly-enlisted friends need to make a lot of cash quick after losing a sketchy poker match. To do this they decide to pull a heist on a small-time gang who happen to be operating out of the flat next door.
What it’s like
Quick, jittery cutting and freeze-frames over a grimy, saturated London, all dim pub interiors, sodium-orange streetlight and cramped flats lit by cheap lamps and the cold blue of television glow. Ritchie's camera is restless: handheld swoops, split screens, slow-motion walks set to a loud, looping soundtrack of breakbeats and soul samples that drives the whole thing forward. The mood is raucous, sardonic and macho, with bursts of sharp dialogue and a rolling, cockney-inflected banter that never lets up. Violence is frequent and often sudden: brutal beatings, torture, gunfire and some gore, with blunt sexual content and heavy drug and alcohol use throughout, so it lands as cartoonishly brutal but never sadistic in tone. It suits a late, loud night with friends or a rewatch when you want energetic and cynical rather than gentle. Best for people who enjoy fast, stylish crime comedy with a hard edge and no interest in quiet moments.
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