‘Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels’ DVD Review: Classic Dialogue And Smart Camerawork

If you cross the Marx Brothers with Quenton Taratino, then you would have  Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, that is if the Brothers were into cutting off fingers.  The film is a very involved caper film set amongst the low-lifes of the East End of London.

The film centers around a three card poker player named Eddy, played by Nick Moran, who gets bankrolled by his friends for a high-stakes game against Hatchet Harry, a kingpin that is a known cheat.  After running up a huge debt, Eddy and his buddies either have to pay up, give up the pub owned by Eddy’s father, or start losing fingers.

While trying to figure out what to do, Eddy and his buddies find out that his neighbors are dealing drugs and his buddies decide to rob them.  They wind up with a couple antique shotguns to pull off the caper but there is a problem.  Hatchet Harry’s enforcer they have to pay off actually owns the guns and he wants them back.  The rest of the films progresses as Eddy and the boys go through a series of misadventures in an attempt to repay Harry, avoid the enforcer, and the drug thieves.

This film is famous for multiple reasons.  The first is the introduction of action star Jason Statham and the next is the classic dialogue and smart camerawork of the film.  While Taratino did not have any hand in the creation of the film, many feel that the film has a heavy Taratino influence.  The film’s director, Guy Ritchie, claims that the Cockney crime flick “The Long Good Friday” was a huge influence on the film.

If you are a fan of caper films, especially ones with great dialogues and great characters, then you need to check out Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Be warned ahead of time that you may need to watch the film more than once to really get the film, but we expect many of you will watch it many more times than that.