Title: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Directed by: Guy Ritchie
Written by: Guy Ritchie
Year: 1998
Is there anything more charming than miserable, failed, low-scale British gangsters? In real life there certainly is, but when Guy Ritchie writes and directs, there is not. The story in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels pivots around a card game in which a self-confident young card player loses £500,000 a man heading a powerful crime network. The card player and his friends have a week produce they money, and if they fail, they will probably die.
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is 105 minutes of hilarity and action. Dialogue between characters is the main engine which propels the story and this is perhaps the strongest aspect of the film. The dialogue is not only perfectly written, but also carried out in a manner which resonates both with the story and with the actors themselves.
Another main attraction of this film is the weird, absurd and extraordinarily entertaining story. Intricate as it is, it si yet somehow straightforward and to the point. Not a scene is wasted and everything is neatly rounded up in the end. I have watched this film more than once, and I suggest you do the same.