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Jason Flemyng in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

Jason Flemyng in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

British postcard by Star-Images, London, no. Lock 07. Photo: SKA Films, 1998. Jason Flemyng as Tom in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Guy Ritchie, 1998).

One of our favourite films of the 1990sis the hip and highly stylised British gangster comedy Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Guy Ritchie, 1998). The story revolves around four friends who become indebted to the local crime lord after a card game goes horribly wrong. The debuting Ritchie brings us an original and hilarious look into the London criminal underground. The film is unforgettable for its inventive, pyrotechnic camera work, great actors, and its flawless, puzzle-perfect screenplay.

The quartet of twenty-something East End friends in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels are the cool and handsome Eddie (Nick Moran), Bacon (Jason Statham), Tom (Jason Flemyng), and Soap (Dexter Fletcher) It was Statham's film debut and the former diver would go on to star in such action films as The Transporter (Corey Yuen, 2002) and its three sequels. Sting appears briefly in several scenes as JD, Eddie's bar-owning father. P.H. Moriarty is wonderful as the hard-as-nails villain and crime boss 'Hatchet' Harry Lonsdale. And former Wales international footballer Vinnie Jones seems to naturally fit his part as debt-collector Big Chris, both tough guy, and family man. It's a film full of testosterone. In fact, one of the very few females in the film doesn't even speak, though she handles a machine gun fairly well. The acting from all involved is great. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was nominated for a British Academy Film Award in 1998 for the outstanding British Film of the Year. Based on a $1.35 million budget, the film had a box office gross of over $28 million, making it a commercial success.

With Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Guy Ritchie took his first step in establishing his own brand. His energetic, ultra-contemporary camera work incorporates such devices as slow motion, fast motion, and freeze-frame coupled with narration. It actually expands upon Martin Scorsese's visual style and camera movements in Mean Streets and Goodfellas. Critics also compared Ritchie's film with the works of Quentin Tarantino and Danny Boyle's 'Trainspotting' but Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is inventive and a true original. Ritchie's film is an involved, complex, and layered work and is essential viewing. The soundtrack is first-rate, from the hits of James Brown to 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' by The Stooges. The groovy, pulsating music and lyrics are often succinctly synchronized with the action and dialogue in the film, creating a theatrical rhythm. While the picture's main focus is on a group of lads who invest money in a high-stakes, rigged card game and lose, the broader story concerns approximately eight different groups of criminals whose paths cross during various illegal pursuits: money, guns, drugs, even revenge. Guy Ritchie's film debut is quite violent, but it's also humorous throughout.

Laura Abraham at AllMovie: "A rabid, farcical look at gangsters in East End London, it contains mayhem at the center of every scene and gains additional intensity from the slow-motion technique Ritchie employs in many of his death sequences. Ritchie's manipulation of these sequences forces his audience to experience the full pain of the events by seeing every detail frame by frame, something particularly apparent in the director's handling of the boxing-ring poker game that catalyses the story. A series of different angles and techniques convey the pressure each character at the table is feeling, and the use of slow-motion makes it impossible for the audience to ignore the pain and anguish that Eddy (expertly played by Nick Moran) must feel when he realizes he is losing a lot of money."

Sources: Laura Abraham (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Taken on: November 16, 2020

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Sets appears in: • British postcards > 1970s

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