Thames Reservoir Dogs

Rating: 7/10 (6 September 1999)

For Americans, screening LS&2SB is like imagining what Fagin's gang would be up to if OLIVER TWIST took place in London's East End today. Or possibly peaking inside the roughneck neighborhood of Alfred P. Doolittle nearly a hundred years post PYGMALION.
Billed as a comedy of sorts, LS&2SB never really gets the hearty laughs it needs. The film's plot has more ironic twists and turns than a ring road from London to Stratford including a funny final freeze frame that is neatly typical of the rest of this "Kraysie" flick.
Following four cockney lads who get into serious debt after a rigged card game, the film's antic camera work (worthy of TRAINSPOTTING) and a great soundtrack (almost worthy of THE COMMITMENTS) can't belie the fact that our four heros somehow get lost in the proverbial shuffle. With heaps of other shady characters to sort through, the viewer is left waiting (not too long) for the next plot point.
Rock icon Sting turns in a nicely understated performance as JD, bar-owning Dad to the lad unlucky in cards. As this is tough turf, the butch film features only two "birds" to speak of, both more plot device than person. If all the above's your bag of cash, give this one a "butchers."
By the way, if you didn't understand that last sentence, better see LS&2SB on DVD, where a cockney rhyming slang dictionary is one of the extras. If you're like most Yanks, you'll want to keep the subtitles on, too. Them blokes don't 'alf talk funny, don't they?