A brilliant directorial debut

Rating: 10/10 (11 February 2014)

How can I describe this movie in one sentence? A low budget but extremely well acted and directed movie."Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" is a gangster comedy with complex plot, dark humour and memorable characters. Writer-director Guy Ritchie did great on this, it's his first film. He is probably my favorite new director. It is a clear recommendation for everybody who enjoys good gangster films with humorous aspects, and if you liked Tarantino's films, this is a suggestion.
The movie is about a poker player named Eddy .who is bankrupted by Hatchet Harry,a gambling and porn king. Harry cheats, Eddy runs up an enormous debt, Barry the Baptist explains that he will start chopping fingers of his friends if he don't pay up. What to do? So the action beginsbut you get the idea. Or maybe you don't. The plot is complex yet understandable and enjoyable. My first reaction was to compare Ritchie's style with that of Quentin Tarantino. On following reflection, no, director Guy Ritchie with this film has a style of his own. What impresses is the way Ritchie handles all of the story lines in this one story. He also does it in such a high-energy style that you have to stop and catch your breath. Ritchie also gets mostly unknown cast, but every single actor in this film does a great job of acting, each plays a unique character. Dialog, dialog, dialog! Don't get me wrong - there's plenty of action in this movie, but dialog (it happens seldom in a movie) are absorbing. As I said, this movie will not be every one's cup of tea. It contains a lot of violence, guns and shooting, blood, dead bodies, fighting. One may say that language is very strong, with multiple uses of "f--k" and various other words, including English slang. The plot involves marijuana growers and stolen drugs, there are no positive characters (it's great, what's to like in them?, positive characters are nearly the same) . But it is done tastefully, funny and fashionable. Finally, the music accompanying this film is excellent. Out of the perhaps several thousand movies I have seen , this was the first soundtrack that I downloaded and it is a very strong collection of old and new tunes that really added a lot to the atmosphere. I rank this movie in my top 10 all time list. If you haven't seen this film yet, you must. It is so funny; you'll want to watch it over and over again.