Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

[baumer]

Discuss

[BiffMan]

"There's no money, there's no weed.  It's all been replaced by a pile of corpses"

 

I somehow missed seeing this and Snatch in the theater and have inadvertently managed to avoid them ever since.  I've been aware of Guy Ritchie, but to date have only seen his two Sherlock movies, so I'm quite interested to go back to the beginning and see both he and Jason Statham get their starts.  I've heard it mentioned that Jason didn't do much action at all in his first couple of movies, so it'll be fun to see why he was cast if not for the kicking of the faces and the shooting of the guns...
 

Lo and behold, another instant favorite of mine!  Almost going overboard on the quirkiness angle, but excellent fast-paced dialogue and a fun example of weaving all the threads into one big tangled mess at the end.  This struck me as almost a gangster-populated version of The Full Monty and it's in the non-violent parts that this movie finds its heart.  I was instantly rooting for the main four even before the poker game and loved the cinematic punch of showing Eddy staggering and dazed after busting out of the game.  From that point, I'm hooked and enjoying the ride. A good thing too, since otherwise the jumping from thread to thread could have been an annoyance, but here it's handled with a great sense of humor and a knowledge that it'll all tie together if I'm patient.

 

Not at all the sort of performance I was expecting for Jason, but he's great all the same.  No action at all from him, but from the opening rapid-fire hustle dialogue, he's already oozing charisma.  His deadpan delivery is put to excellent use here as one of the more sane ones in the gang and his expressions are wonderful.  I love his ability to look annoyed, incredulous, intimidating, and dismissive all at once.  He must be an interesting guy to hang with, particularly knowing where his career is headed.  All in all quite the debut performance. 
 

I'm quite amazed at the quality of performances here, particularly given this is Ritchie's first go as director and Jason and Vinnie's first movies as well.  Vinnie in particular is completely awesome and I love the honorable man and doting father angle on a heavy.  Made for some great moments and Vinnie practically steals the last half of the movie.  I see he's made several other movies with Jason, so it'll be fun to see him again and find out if this was one-time magic or if he really is that fun all the time.
 

Badassery Quotient - 5

I'm defining BQ as Jason's commanding presence, charisma, fight sequences, and use of guns and vehicles.  Compared to Arnold's AQ, this is less about Jason being Jason than Jason doing what Jason does best.  Jason.  So since we have none of the action bits that he's directly involved in, it mostly falls down to charisma and presence which he has an astounding amount of for a debut performance.  We'll have to keep an eye on this Jason, he may have a promising career in B movies ahead of him!

 

Rewatchability - Yes please

It's such a rare treat to know you've just watched a new favorite movie.  Yet another to add to the list and one I'd definitely try to force on other people.  I can see the tone and style being offputting to some, but it really worked for me and was a hell of a lot of fun.  It's difficult to resist wanting to go right back and watch this again right now.

[Lordmandeep]

This and snatch are great...The whole hiest and the jokes are hilarious...

[Jack Nevada]

Eh, its good, but its nowhere near as funny or clever as Snatch. I did like the ending.

 

 

3/5