LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS (M).
Director:Guy Ritchie
Stars: Jason Flemyng, Nick Moran,
Dexter Fletcher, Jason Statham, P H
Moriarty, Steven Mackintosh, Vinnie
Jones, Lenny McLean, Sting, Stephen
Marcus, Frank Harper, Steve
Sweeney, Vas Blackwood, Peter
McNicholl
Running Time:100 minutes.
Following Antonia Bird's recent brutal thriller Face
comes another gritty, compelling, and, at times, quite
bloody gangster thriller from Britain. Clearly inspired
by Tarantino's bravura style, first time writer/director
Guy Ritchie puts some much needed muscle back
into the crime genre with Lock, Stock And Two
Smoking Barrels. It seems as though a new breed of
young directors are determined to put the pulp back
into British crime fiction.
This cleverly written, black comedy is set against the
tough background of London's underworld, a
menacing, dangerous, masculine world characterised
by treachery, violence, bloody murder, drugs and
tough, low life thugs. It's also a world inhabited by
people with unsavoury but decidedly colourful
monikers like Hatchet Harry, Nick The Greek, Barry
The Baptist, Dog, and Plank.
Trouble begins for hot shot card player Eddy (Nick
Moran) when he loses a fortune to Hatchet Harry (P
H Moriarty) in a rigged poker game. He suddenly
finds that he and his three friends owe the porn king
and notorious gangster boss a cool half million. They
have a week to pay up, or else they start losing a
finger a day until the debt is honoured. Or simply,
Hatchet Harry can take over the lease of his father's
pub.
In desperation, Eddy hatches a scheme to get the
money. He learns that his crooked neighbours are
planning to rob some local drugs dealers. Eddy
decides to hijack the stolen booty, sell the drugs and
repay his debt. The situation becomes horribly
complicated as Eddy's actions trigger off a bloody
gang war. Drug dealers, hit men, taciturn minders, a
couple of inept thieves, and even an unlucky traffic
warden are drawn into the fray. Events rush towards
the inevitable blood bath, but the violence itself is
tempered by a strong streak of black humour.
Audiences find themselves nervously laughing at the
thought of people being maimed, crippled, or killed in
rather bloody fashion. Ritchie directs with dizzying
energy and style, and he spares us much of the
graphic detail when it comes to the blood and guts
department. A lot of the violence actually occurs just
off screen, but the film is still quite a powerful
morality play. Even the vernacular has an authentic
ring to it, and one suspects that this is a world with
which Ritchie is familiar.
Ritchie has astutely cast the film with a number of
roguish looking characters who bring a palpable air of
menace to the material. Former boxing champ Lenny
McLean (to whom the film is dedicated) has a quiet
but effectively menacing presence as Harry's
bodyguard and enforcer. The largely unknown cast
bring a freshness and dynamic energy to the film, and
it's a sure bet that we'll be seeing much more of some
of these likely lads in the near future. Sting
contributes a brief appearance as Eddy's father.
Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels is terrific
stuff, although it's clever mix of violence and black
humour may not be to everyone's tastes!