After the disappointment of Jackie Brown, many Tarantino fans began to lose faith in their idol. Some began to look for his heir or someone who could be viewed as the new cinema guru. For a while, it seemed that the heir could be found in Britain. The 1998 black comedy Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels introduced its writer and director Guy Ritchie as one of the most Tarantino-like filmmakers in the world.
The film is set in the East End, a part of London where many inhabitants earn their living through various illegal activities. Soap (played by Dexter Fletcher), Tom (played by Jason Flemyng), Bacon (played by Jason Statham), and Eddie (played by Nick Moran) are four small-time criminals who gathered enough money to enter the high-roller poker game arranged by local crime lord Harry "Hatchet" Lonsdale (played by P.H. Moriarty). Eddie is a superb poker player, and the four friends expect to come out of the game as rich men. Unfortunately, Harry and his lieutenant Barry the Baptist (played by Lenny McLean) had the game fixed. It turns out that the whole scheme was just a clever plan to take over a bar owned by Eddie's father JD (played by Sting). JD is supposed to sell his bar and thus save his son's life, but he refuses. The four youths must find an alternative source of money to pay their gambling debt and avoid Harry's goons. Fortunately, their neighbors are criminals who are planning a raid on the facility run by local marijuana entrepreneurs. Eddie and his friends have learned of this plan, so they decide to intervene and take away the money and drugs. But this scheme also gets complicated.
Guy Ritchie was seen as the British equivalent of Tarantino because the plot of his film had at least a superficial resemblance to some ingredients of Tarantino's formula - inept small-time criminals, their schemes that go terribly wrong, and graphic violence laced with black humor. On the other hand, Ritchie's film lacks Tarantino's narrative cohesion, characters aren't clearly defined, and hardly anyone could find some kind of author's moral stance. Ritchie seems more interested in sensationally showing the seedier sections of London. Because of that, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels looks genuine, and a couple of non-professional actors – former bare-knuckle boxer Larry McLean and former football star Vinnie Jones - add to the film's realism.
On the other hand, Ritchie also can't resist the temptation to show everyone that he had learned his trade on commercials and video clips. Unlike Tarantino's films, this one is fast-paced. Viewers might find it difficult to follow the complicated plot, and the small army of characters is hard to keep track of; on the other hand, viewers won't be able to spot the film's flaws. The film benefits from Ritchie's sense of humor and innovative use of props. For example, WWII buffs would be delighted with the scene featuring the Bren light machine gun, one of the best weapons of the era, seldom used by contemporary filmmakers. The acting in the film is very good, as is usually the case with British casts. The pop music tracks in the film are perfectly chosen and serve as an excellent background to the plot. On the other hand, the many subplots are resolved in a rather predictable manner, and some viewers might experience a sense of déjà vu.
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is far from being in the same class as Tarantino's classics, but it is nevertheless a very entertaining film, even for those who are now accustomed to black comedies about "cool" British criminals.
RATING: 6/10 (++).
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on July 9th, 2004)
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