An Absolute Double-Barrelled Blast!

Rating: 10/10 (14 December 2005)

Gads what a great flick! This is a twisty, turny, shoot-em-up and laugh at the outcome type of flick. Brilliant in its pacing, plot, scripting and delivery. THIS is how comedies should be made.
It has a plot that's so complex it's hard to explain, but they pull it off brilliantly. All comedies have a screwball plot, but not all of them can pull it off. Sometimes you're so fixated on the fact that "this film makes no sense" that you can't revel in the humor. With "Lock, Stock" that is NOT a problem at all. You can go with the flow, and can be amazed as all these diversely bizarre threads come together at the end.
The movie also dives into that great comic well -- known as Lower Class Britain -- and delivers everything it can possible promise. Copious profanity. Indecipherable (for us Americans) Cockney slang. Seedy locales. Multicultularism that blends in famously. And stuff that only is funny out of a Brit's mouth (if an American delivered these lines it would be horrible).
The timing and pacing of this movie are spot-on. Only very rarely are there bits that "hang", most of it is just one spot after another, bang bang bang bang. These folks really have comic timing down to an art form.
Love the over-the-top hints of violence, too. In true Brit fashion they don't throw violence on the screen like Tarantino might. It's all there, though, and in great form. The ludicrousness of it is suggested, both in off-screen sounds and in the hilariously gruesome aftermath. Utterly brilliant in delivery! The filmmakers clearly had a plan and executed it to perfection. 10 out of 10, one of the funnest films I've seen in a while. Sure it's almost 8 years old, but it's worth renting it even now.
Barky