Stupidity can be a saving grace, for such an unfortunate state of mind causes the unexpected to happen (wisdom and foolishness are much alike, for both are indifferent to the opinions of the world). In the violent, testosterone laden underworld of London several unhinged, inexperienced and desperate characters tempt fate in this manner. They pool their resources and talents in the hope of winning a high stakes poker game. Of course, it does not go as planned and they find themselves at the mercy of thugs, bounty hunters, loan sharks, mobsters and other assorted wankers. Multiple people converge on a single target, and the smartest - or dumbest - will emerge from the fray.Guy Ritchie has a pulse on the dark humor, snarky characters and viciousness of the London underworld and it is fascinating and thrilling to behold. This low-budget first film brought him fame and comparisons to Tarantino. Insults fly as much as bullets. The soundtrack, including the Stone Roses, is quite good. I saw the film twice and liked it better the first time. Perhaps Ritchie films are losing the initial quirkiness and uniqueness that gave them luster? For Americans to try to get a grip on British English, subtitles are essential.

Ritchie's feature film debut and very similar in themes and outlook to his next film, Snatch. A film about dubious criminals, simple souls, odd happenstances, bloody brutality and tongue-in-cheek crime comedy.The story goes that a group of four friends end up owing money to the biggest, meanest and baddest crime lord in town. To solve this conundrum they decide to rob their next door neighbours, who just happen to be gangsters planning a big heist against a local bunch of weed cultivators. There's also a pair of antique shotguns floating around. Hence the name.Ritchie's signature flair shines through even this early on. The film is full of inventive camera angles, nonchalant character reactions and certain attitude that to me resembles an odd mixture of pro wrestling and 40s pulp adventure. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is a Character with a capital C. Everyone is playing a role, everyone is posturing, yet everyone is at least a bit clueless and oddly sincere in their interactions. It's at the same time ridiculous and utterly endearing.Still, compared to Snatch, this is a lesser film. The plot is nowhere near as snappy, the cinematography doesn't have the reproductive organs to go all the way and for some reason the whole film uses this awful brown filter, which makes the film look like it crawled through the London sewer system.Is it worth a watch? Absolutely! It's just that Snatch pulls it off even better. Watch both if you can, but if you can only watch one, this is not the one.

I was finally introduced to this film in March of this year by a friend, alongside it's successor film, Snatch. Since then I've viewed the film a total of three times, and I've finally come to point of being able to a compile a critical review. I've taken time to handle it properly, as this is understandably a cult classic and has warranted a lot of good reviews.I believe that Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a charming movie that achieves a lot despite it's low budget. It contains standout performances and creative cinematography at times, but holds it's failings in both of those departments as well. The movies' strongest attributes are it's tone, plot and pacing, and doesn't actually contain too many issues aside from sound design and one or two plot holes. Overall, I think Lock, Stock is one of the best British comedies I've seen in a while.There are numerous other little issues I also took up with the film, but a great deal of them owed largely to the films low budget. On that note, a lot of the effects and visuals that would disappoint on a higher budget actually work impressively considering the films constraints on money. Considering the debatable aspects surrounding criticizing budgeted effects, I'll opt to leave those criticisms out of my review.Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was produced in 1998 but largely defies time period in it's cinematography and design. It's rustic color palette and noticeable film grain place it more often in the era of the 1970s. But Cinematography in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels in general is a hit and miss. The film contains some amazing sequences, especially during action scenes and the infamous card game which sets off the entire plot. This is excellent, as the parts of the movie that seriously matter are almost all given a good level of film quality, but the same cannot be said for the scenes in between. Conversations between characters, especially those with shots that go back and forth are at best unoriginal and at worst so awkward that they can detract from the largely superb writing. And with dialogue being a supreme feature in this film (might I mention since it is especially lacking in visual storytelling), not having the cinematographic quality to go hand it hand with the quips often leaves me wanting.Speaking of dialogue, the films plot and script are the greatest aspect it has to offer. At no point in the film does the consistent back and forth between the ensemble cast end or lose it's magic. It's no surprise that the film is ranked as one of the most quotable films to come out of Britain's comedy market. The plot, for the most part, is an easy to understand but still complex web of connecting lines bringing the entire set of characters together through a special and sometimes dubious set of circumstances. It's a rather fun joy ride to sit through and track even through multiple viewings, and even by my third viewing, there were small details in both dialogue and occasionally visual cues that I missed out on. The film also doesn't hold the viewers hand too much, despite an admittedly helpful narration, and plot points that can confound first time viewers are always smoothly resolved by the end of the film. The characters themselves are unique and often relatable, despite being brought down by amateur acting skills at times. They're written with a decent degree of complexity and some little details I only noticed, once again, in re-watches.But on the note of characters and their actors, the acting in this film is much like cinematography as it quite often hits and misses, but on a much more prevalent scale than the former. While the film no doubt contains some all star performances, it is quite often brought down by stale delivery by unemotional actors as well. Jason Statham, Vinnie Jones and Steve Mackintosh all add to the film with great performances, and give the movie a good backbone despite the lacking work from actors with more screen time like Nick Moran and Lenny McLean. Overall the bad performances in the film are largely put in the shade by the aforementioned writing skills of Guy Ritchie. I'm not an expert of music so I haven't take the time to check out the movies soundtrack but nonetheless it is certainly well put together. I found that they were very suitable for the movies subject matter and blended well with the overall finished product. This, however, was brought down by the small issue of sound design in weapons and environments.Some of the other things I enjoyed before concluding: The pace is great, lighting is great and visual effects are notably decent for what they were. One more thing I didn't enjoy is the occasional plot points scattered about, but none are serious enough to hurt my rating.In summary, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is an entertaining crime comedy that accomplishes quite a lot despite it's budget. While it is damaged by acting, cinematography, sound design and plot holes, none of these things are significant enough to damage the overall experience too much. Through multiple watches I found that there was things that I only noticed later on, along with the fact that the comedy still holds strong no matter how many times you ingest the quips. Watch out for my review of Snatch, coming soon. I'm happy leaving the movie with an 8/10.

I love this movie. It was the first movie were I saw Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones. Big Chris became actually one of my fav characters in movies, after watching this one, like 10 years ago. I've just watched for the 3rd time in my life and indeed, this movie is pretty accurate, the dialogues, how it put you into context, also the way of introducing the characters -something he tried to repeat in Snatch-, the random performance of Sting, also this dark filter in the whole scenography, that gives you this weird feeling of dirty suburbs, of dangerous grey alleys... Is a good representation of London when it comes to the heist sub-genre. Is curious how good it is in comparison to other Ritchie's movies. Although is the first one of his filmography, is also the finest. If you haven't seen it yet, what are you waiting for?