Have you seen
Snatch? Well this is Snatch without the Pikies or the diamond. If you haven't seen Snatch, well, you should, but you should see this first.
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is worth seeing because it has a cool title, yes, and because even though 80 percent of the plot was recycled for the smoother, more professional Snatch, it's still entertaining. The plot: 4 friends pool their savings for a high-stakes card game, only to lose it because the game is rigged. They wind up 500,000 pounds in the hole and must pay a violent criminal named Hatchet Harry (Bricktop without the pigs) or his henchman will cut their fingers off. Add to this a complicated set of subplots involving antique guns and stolen weed, and you have a fairly entertaining heist movie. Much of the acting is amateurish, very much like community-theater, but remember, the actors aren't the stars here, Guy Ritchie is. It's smartly written and smartly directed. Ritchie's content is very similar to Quentin Tarantino's in that both men seem heavily influenced by Elmore Leonard, but Richie's work feels more like a EL fast-paced books than Tarantino's.
Note that this is a British movie, with a wide range of regional English accents, so if you are one of those people who can't understand people from other states, let alone from other countries, keep your subtitles on.
It's here! Your new message!
Get
new email alerts with the free
Yahoo! Toolbar.
