Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Lock Stock was Guy Ritchie’s first major British film; it was met with critical acclaim and a huge response from the public. Everyone loved the movie, and it soon became something of a cult classic among movie fanatics.

The film begins with a poker tournament, and a voiceover explaining the basics of the game, and how it works. We then witness a group of men performing various dodgy deals, everything from selling stolen goods on the street to conducting business by selling more stolen things from the back of their shop. We soon learn that the reason they have been selling so much stuff is so that they can all lend their friend ‘Ed’ the money to get into an extremely big poker game. The stakes of the game are high, and the price to enter is £25,000. With the help of his friends Ed manages to get hold of the money, but doesn’t realise that the game is a fix. We soon meet ‘Hatchet Harry’ and his henchman ‘Barry the Baptist’ the two big time gangsters who are running the game. Hatchet Harry is fitted with a spy device so that Barry the Baptist can look at Ed’s cards whilst he plays, giving them the upper hand through the entire game. When it comes to the crunch Ed has to borrow half a million pounds from Hatchet Harry to stay in the game, as planned he soon loses and is now in debt to the gangster. He is given one week to pay before they are warned that they will lose their toes one by one! This sounds quite comedic but the guys understand the seriousness of the situation and resort to drastic action to raise the money to clear their debt. But will they be able to pay up in time before Hatchet Harry loses his patience?

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a fantastic film. The cast is just brilliant, especially Vinnie Jones as Big Chris and Lenny Mclean as Barry the Baptist.
The film shows the dark side of gambling, and focuses on London’s dark criminal underground. The scenes actually shot at the Poker table are amazing, and the cinematography is mind blowing, most notably in the scene where Ed staggers away from the Poker table after losing the lot. The blurry camera effects and the general feel of the whole scene really do sum up just how Ed must be feeling. Another thing to comment on about the film is its fantastic soundtrack. It has a mixture of various influential British songs and includes just about every possible style of music, from punk to ska and reggae.

The on set chemistry of all the guys on set is just great, and the movie doesn’t feel it has to rely on a love story to keep it afloat. In fact there is only one girl in the movie, and she isn’t even really featured much until the whole ‘machine gun incident’ which you will understand when you watch it for yourself!

Lock Stock is one of the best British films out there, if you haven’t managed to watch it yet it is highly recommended you do so as soon as possible.

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