LOCK, STOCK & TWO SMOKING BARRELS RATING: 7.5 / 10 --> Very Good Movie
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I agree with most critics that this is a fine movie, but let's be frank here, originality ain't this movie's strong suit! If you liked any combination of the following movies, you will probably enjoy the goings-on in this film, despite its deja-vu feel at times: ROUNDERS (7/10), RESERVOIR DOGS (9.5/10), OUT OF SIGHT (8/10), TRUE ROMANCE (9.5/10), TRAINSPOTTING (9/10) and PULP FICTION (7.5/10).
PLOT: Four dudes that get in over their head after losing a chunk of dough in a poker match to a really nasty, bad guy, have to figure out a way to repay the man half a million pounds before the end of the week. Plenty of crime, seedy, underground characters and unpleasantries ensue.
CRITIQUE: Fun, interesting, rehash of yet another crime caper starring a sackful of quirky and degenerate characters, which features some fine acting by all involved, a hot-dogging soundtrack, and some of the finer stylish shots to hit crime cinema since 1996's TRAINSPOTTING. Granted, some of the filming techniques used to stir our imagination are somewhat overused, but still cool to watch, especially the stop-motion slo-mo stuff sprinkled throughout. I did enjoy the plot line as well, but my rating of this film versus all of the others mentioned above, gives you an indication of how derivatives of a great thing, don't always impact the viewer as much as the originals did. That, and the fact that I had to filter out a good lump of the dialogue due to the ol' British accents and slang.
Unlike Tarantino movies, this film wasn't peppered with pop references all over the place, but it did lace itself with a fine overtone of comedy and irony. It doesn't even try to hide its influences, with plenty of hinted homages to the many recent great crime films mixed into its lair of colorful characters, stylish bravado and double-smoking entertainment. You'll probably like this movie if you're "into" this whole hip, black comedic crime flicks theme, or if you really dig films with a lot of flashy style. You'll probably hate it, if you think that many of the films that I named above sucked. Note: There are almost no women in this entire movie.
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: Director Guy Ritchie started his career off as a TV commercial director. "Hatchet" Harry's collector in this movie named Big Chris, is played by actual "football" star Vinnie Jones. Noted as one of soccer's hard men, he leapt to fame when a photographer at a match snapped him "marking" another player by grabbing his testicles. His nickname is "Psycho". Trudie Styler is one of the executive producers of this film. In real life, she is married to singer/actor Sting, who happens to play the role of Eddy's dad in this movie. Sting's real name is Gordon Matthew Sumner. This film was nominated for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film at the 1998 British Academy Awards, and won a best director award for Guy Ritchie at the 1998 Tokyo International Film Festival. Originally titled TWO SMOKING BARRELS.
Review Date: April 25, 1999 Director: Guy Ritchie Writer: Guy Ritchie Producer: Matthew Vaughn Actors: Nick Moran as Eddy, Jason Flemyng as Tom, Dexter Fletcher as Soap, Jason Statham as Bacon Genre: Crime Year of Release: 1999
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(c) 1999 Berge Garabedian
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