"There's no money. There's no weed. It's all been replaced by a big pile of corpses."
Brit writer-director Guy Ritchie will find it near impossible to escape comparisons like "Trainspotting-meets-Pulp Fiction" for his debut film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The parallels are not unwarranted: he assembles a crew of eccentric characters with knockout dialogue; uses smart editing that beats anything Trainspotting's Danny Boyle has produced; pumps it up with a pop punk soundtrack including The Stooges, James Brown and Happy Mondays; uses local humour that extends to a North American audience; has a clever story full of calamitous coincidences and hand-wringing scenes; and it's loaded with guns, violence and a big bag of money.
Comparisons aside, this is a uniquely entertaining film and a veritable indulgence, emblematic of British youth tossing a few pints at the local pub and looking to nick a quick buck. Four mates Eddy, Tom, Soap and Bacon (Nick Moran, Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher and Jason Statham) pool £100,000 in a card game with porn king and card shark Hatchet Harry (P.H. Moriarty). When they find themselves owing a considerable debt and in danger of losing body parts, they're forced to come up with an incredulous scheme that involves ripping off their unsavoury neighbours, who are all set to steal a pile of ganja and cash from another local gangster.
Ritchie uses this clever, twisting story as a gritty, unique backbone. He manipulates freeze frames, slow- and fast-motion and clever editing by Niven Howie to effect a notable style. Personable characters - Sting plays Eddy's hard-nose pop, and Steve Sweeney's cretinous Plank is as despicable as Lenny McLean's strong-arm Barry the Baptist is frighteningly amiable - are paired with quotable dialogue. When contemplating his choice of weapon, Soap thinks knives are a good idea. "Big… shiny ones. Guns for show; knives for a pro." Ritchie also uses the classic standoff and coincidences - like those used repeatedly by Tarrantino - with verve and a twist. Double takes, luck and the pursuit of power are laid out on a thick pile of class-conscious humour.
Undoubtedly, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels will be criticised for its violence. After all, there's lots of it. But take note that the gun shots and knifings are never actually seen, following the Hitchcockian adage that less is more.
