Among the best British films

Rating: 9/10 (12 November 2005)

"Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" is a classic comedy noir about misunderstandings, coincidences and overconfidence. Four young men, three of whom are relatively harmless black marketers, try to win a lot of money by playing poker with the local gangster, Harry. This backfires horribly, and they owe £ 500,000.
The rest of the film is about their search for the money. It involves their far more dangerous neighbours, naïve university dropouts who sell marijuana, a drug dealer described as "a madman with an afro" and, of course, the Harry and his men, most memorably Big Chris, the debt collector. Whether the characters are two-dimensional or just trying to live up to certain underground stereotypes I do not know, but it doesn't matter. They are parodies, but good ones.
Guy Ritchie's experience as a music video director is obvious; there is a certain MTV-feel about it. Added to that, this film is so London-oriented that most of us will feel as if we're missing half the jokes, and there are times when subtitles will come in handy, even for a native speaker (e.g. "He then proceeds to order an Aristotle of the most ping-pong tiddly in the Nuclear sub"). In short, this film is a lot of fun, slightly absurd, always fast-paced, well directed and really, really British. Well worth your time.