Good fun, but ultimately failing to live up to the comparisons

Rating: 7/10 (13 June 2005)

I will be honest, I turned on 'Lock, Stock' with very little hope - I had been led to believe that it was a senseless action movie, the type of film that FHM give 10/10, and the rest of the world wouldn't touch with a barge pole. I was pleasantly surprised upon viewing the film, but still could not see how people compare the film to the Pulp Fictions and Trainspottings of this world.
Upon reading the comments on 'Snatch', which I am yet to see, I noticed someone saying that the performances on both films were excellent across the board. Not having seen 'Snatch' I am unable to judge that, but i can certainly say that I was disappointed with the acting in 'Lock, Stock'. I felt that while Vinnie Jones made a good debut, and there was the odd good performance, the main quartet certainly let the film down. At times the focus on reeling off snappy dialogue took precedence over actually acting, and to a certain extent this led me to stop actually caring about what happened to the characters. While the thrill of their audacious attempts was great, and some of the lines were hilarious, most viewers get too swept up to really care at all about the characters. Some will say that this doesn't matter, but it certainly does to me.
Ritchie's style of direction at times baffled me - at times I saw glimpses of cinematic genius, and realised exactly what the 'music video style' could bring to film, (e.g. Eddie's departure from the poker game) but occasionally shots felt amateurish and lazy - for example look at the two Kennys' 'get the guns' argument near the end of the film. This meant i could occasionally see what the plaudits were on about, and occasionally jumped right back to my original feelings about the film.
There is normally nothing that I hate more than pretentious film critics rubbishing a film because it isn't a) a postmodern satire on what it is really like to be a man or b) a documentary on Ukrainian house-husbands, and I did thoroughly enjoy Lock, Stock (I gave it 7/10). However, it is not, in my opinion, worthy of top 250 entry, and will always remain for me a post-pub fun fest.