Have a butcher's at this, mates

Rating: 8/10 (5 July 2009)

Guy Ritchie's debut, "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels", is a British gangster film that invites comparison to the early works of Quentin Tarantino. The story revolves around four working class blokes who get saddled with a half a million pound debt and have a week to come up with the cash before they start losing appendages.
The story is an inventive one, snaking its way through numerous twists and turns, eventually arriving at a satisfying conclusion. The script contains plenty of humour and the British setting gives American audiences a fairly unique experience. That being said, those who have trouble with accents may find the dialogue a little hard to follow, particularly since there's some Cockney rhyming slang mixed in.
The cast is a well-chosen, authentic bunch. There aren't really any standout performances but there aren't really any sub-standard ones either. That being said, I could have done without Sting but at least his role is only a minor one.
Ritchie's direction is energetic and employs a multitude of cinematic techniques. Occasionally his stylization goes a bit overboard but overall he exercises enough restraint to keep the story moving briskly. The film shows its low-budget roots in the visuals but that doesn't matter much since the grimy look suits the subject matter well. The soundtrack is another key element in that it contains a number of excellent cuts that go a long way in establishing the film's tone.
All in all, this is a quality gangster film, albeit one that mixes in a heavy dose of comedy with its crime. Comparisons to Tarantino are warranted but, in my opinion, it would be a disservice to dismiss Ritchie as a mere copycat. There's real inventiveness here, as demonstrated once again in the stylistically similar (and arguably superior) follow-up, "Snatch".