One of the most overrated British films ever

Rating: 6/10 (30 June 2004)

At the time this film was hailed as a revolution in homegrown Brit film making. From now on we would be churning out film after flim full of rough voiced cockneys killing one another and saying 'slaaaag a lot'. America would begin to find estuary accents fascinating and unlimited funding would flow from the Land of the Free to independent filmakers based in Soho and Noting Hill. Of course nothing of the sort happened.In reality 'Lock, Stock...' was a dead end that resulted in even worse imitators('Shoreditch' or 'Circus'anyone?).It was compared by Lads Lifestyle Mag editors to 'The Italian Job' though the staff of Loaded overlooked the curse that they were handing out. The earlier film will always be a good way to kill two hours on a Sunday afternoon, but it will never play in Poughkeepsie.To be fair it did get Guy Ritchie a sexy Missus and Vinnie jones will never have to do Gladiators again but who of note has actually been influenced by this film? It was done better before and has been done worse since.