Lock, Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels

Four dudes who get in over their head after losing a chunk of dough in a poker match to a really nasty, bad guy, have to figure out a way to repay the man half a million pounds before the end of the week. Plenty of crime, seedy, underground characters and unpleasantries ensue.

Fun, interesting, rehash of yet another crime caper starring a sackful of quirky and degenerate characters, which features some fine acting by all involved, a hot-dogging soundtrack, and some of the finer stylish shots to hit crime cinema since 1996’s TRAINSPOTTING. Granted, some of the filming techniques used to stir our imagination are somewhat overused, but still cool to watch, especially the stop-motion slo-mo stuff sprinkled throughout. I did enjoy the plot line as well, but my rating of this film versus all of the others mentioned above, gives you an indication of how derivatives of a great thing, don’t always impact the viewer as much as the originals once did. That, and the fact that I had to filter out a good lump of the dialogue due to the ol’ British accents and slang.

Unlike Tarantino movies, this film wasn’t peppered with pop references all over the place, but it did lace itself with a fine overtone of comedy and irony. It doesn’t even try to hide its influences, with plenty of hinted homages to the many recent great crime films mixed into its lair of colorful characters, stylish bravado and double-smoking entertainment. You’ll probably like this movie if you’re “into” this whole hip, black comedic crime flicks theme, or if you really dig films with a lot of flashy style. You’ll probably hate it, if you think that many of the films that I named above sucked. Note: There are almost no women in this entire movie.

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian