Eddie: They're armed.
Soap: Armed, armed with what?
Eddie: Err, bad breath, colorful language, feather duster... what do you think they're gonna be armed with? Guns, you tit!
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels is a comedy crime movie that was directed and written by Guy Ritchie. It was recorded and originally released in Britain in 1998. It has a runtime of 103 minutes and has a rating of R.
Eddie is a young gambling type, his father owns a bar. Eddie has a couple of other friends that have always lived on the east side of London, and they've decided to pool together their savings in order to bring in some big money. Eddie is going to play a big stakes game with some people including the known criminal "Hatchet" Harry. Harry, not being one to take chances and has always had his eye on Eddie's father's bar, has rigged the game. His good friend Barry the Baptist has been trying to zoom in on Eddie's cards. Harry drives Eddie into a one on one game, and gets him to take more from the bank than he actually has. Eddie loses and ends up owing 500,000 pounds to Harry. Things begin looking especially bad for Eddie and his friends as they try to figure a way to get the money before Eddie's father finds out. Their problem is solved when they find out they can hear a group of criminals through the vent in their closet. The criminals plan on knocking over a drug grower who has a lot of cash lying around. Things seem to look brighter.
Meanwhile, Harry is giving Eddie some time before he starts pushing on Eddie's father to give him the bar. Harry is also taking interest in two antique shotguns, that he doesn't wish to pay for. He asks Barry to find some people to steal it for him. Unfortunatly, these guys don't seem to have much brains, and the shotguns get into the hands of Nick the Greek. Nick happens to know Tom, one of Eddie's friends, and sells the shotguns to him for the robbery.
I would like to start out with my review saying that I loved this film. It was a slightly comedic take on the east side of London and was nicely fast-paced. The camera work is very fun to watch, with the music fitting into the scenes quite well. The dialogue was fun, and included Cockney Rhyming Slang. Cockney Rhyming Slang is an old east end code that these days is mainly used by young adults, because they think it sounds cool. The slang meshes in with people's dialogue easily, and there is one special scene featuring it. The scene has so much Cockney Rhyming Slang that a normal person will have quite a few problems understanding it, and it has been subtitled. The movie also has a nice cameo from Sting as Eddie's father.
The movie was dedicated to Lenny McLean, who played Barry the Baptist. McLean died one month before the release of the film. McLean had been a famous bare knuckle boxer before getting into the realm of acting. While Vinnie Jones, who played Big Chris, had been a famous aggresive football(soccer) player, known for being dangerous, as well as having been released from police custody on the first day of filming.
Lately, I've also been thinking of this film as being similar to The Lavender Hill Mob. The difference being that in The Lavender Hill Mob, the main two criminals would've never been criminals under most situations. However, they're both in the vein of criminals under an odd situation who are fumbling with the job.
The U.S. DVD of the movie includes a dictionary and introduction to the usage of Cockney Rhyming Slang, a production featurette, and trailers for both the U.S. and U.K.
Main Cast:
Jason Flemyng - Tom
Dexter Fletcher - Soap
Nick Moran - Eddie
Jason Statham - Bacon
Steven Mackintosh - Winston
Nicholas Rowe - J
Nick Marcq - Charles
Charles Forbes - Willie
Vinnie Jones - Big Chris
Lenny McLean - Barry the Baptist
Peter McNicholl - Little Chris
P.H. Moriarty - 'Hatchet' Harry Lonsdale
Frank Harper - Dog
Steve Sweeney - Plank
Huggy Leaver - Paul
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels The Soundtrack
Tracks: Italicized tracks are dialogue
- Hundred Mile High City performed by Ocean Coulour Scene
- hortif**kinculturist performed by Steven Mackintosh
- Police and Thieves performed by Juniour Murvin
- Spooky performed by Dusty Springfield
- muppets performed by P.H. Moriarty, Lenny McLean, and Victor McGuire
- The Boss performed by James Brown
- Walk this Land performed by E-Z Rollers
- blaspheming barry performed by Lenny McLean
- I Wanna Be Your Dog performed by The Stooges
- it's kosher performed by Jason Felmyng and Stephen Marcus
- Why Did You Do It? performed by Stretch
- i've been shot performed by Steve Sweeney and Frank Harper
- Oh Girl performed by Evil Superstars
- guns 4 show knives 4 a pro performed by Nick Moran and Dexter Fletcher
- Zorba the Greek performed by John Murphy and David Hughes
- The Payback performed by James Brown
- it's been emotional performed by Vinnie Jones
- 18 With a Bullet performed by Pete Wingfield