Review of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) by Cameron J — 12 May 2012

And so begins the magical careers of Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham...- Oh, and some guy named Vinnie Jones. So yeah, as if you don't know by now, I'm no big sports fan, as opposed to Guy Ritchie, because the only two people introduced through this film was Vinnie Jones, a soccer-oh, I'm sorry, I mean "football", and Jason Statham, a swimmer, if you can even call him that. I don't if it's fair to call what Jason Statham did swimming, because I'd imagine that he doesn't so much swim when he does a breast stroke as much as he parts the water and lets it dump back in as double malt scotch, because he's just that awesome and manly. Jason Statham's so cool that he ripped the Crown Beard of Ultimate Manliness from Chuck Norris' mug and then stared at it until it exploded, as he knew it was not worthy of his awesome face. Everyone knows that peach fuzz is cooler than a full-on beard, but only because Statham has one. Anyone else remember Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher and Nick Moran? Yeah, me neither, because, outside of Sting, the only two names you needed to remember after this film were Jason Statham and, of course, Guy Ritchie, who definately knows how to live up to the "Guy" in his name, as well as the potential of some good films, including this one, which isn't to say that he can't totally dodge all of his films' troubles now, let alone when he was tackling his first film.

Guy Ritchie is a sensational filmmaker from, if nothing else, a style standpoint, yet he was maybe a little too eager to jump into stylizing with this underproduced film. The cinematography on the film is quite handsome, as I'll get into later, yet quite often, Ritchie's and cinematographer Tim Maurice-Jones' hyper style mixes pretty roughly with the limited filming resources, leaving many points in the film to feel a touch awkward in its inconsistent mixture of amateur and overambitiously skilled style, a combination that also produces much oversaturation that amplifies the style to the point of rendering the film quite often overstylized. That's unfortunate, especially when you consider that, of all common aspects of underproduced indie films, slowness should have probably been the one for Ritchie to contradict, for although this film isn't nearly as slow as some of your other indie attemps, including comedies, it still dulls down here and there, and way more than it should with a storyline this under eventful. The story of the film seems to limp along, with repetition and moments of unevenness padding things out until one of the film's major points, which are never all that stellar, or even terribly original to begin with. It's not an extremely conventional story, though, outside of execution in most aspects and as far as general structure goes, the film doesn't pull quite enough unique tricks, and with that mixed with the aforementioned problems, this film should, for all extents and purposes, come out as not much more than just fine. Guy Ritchie, however, ain't havin' that, for although his newcomer status came with a lack in the experience that has since made him such a remarkable filmmaker, there's not much you can do to knock down someone as skilled as Ritchie. This isn't his smoothest production, though it is a relatively very well-crafted introduction that gives us more often than not satisfying tastes of Ritchie's abilities, particularly when it comes to style.

Again, the marriage of a not-so-up-to-par camera with such hyper stylized cinematography tricks feels awkwardly inconsistent, often to where the film comes off as disatractingly oversaturated, yet more than that, cinematographer Tim Maurice-Jones' cinematography and Ritchie's stylistic touches give the film a very unique and extremely handsome look, with gritty yet lively colors and inventively dynamic camerawork capturing both the aesthetics' attention and the film's tone, much like the soundrack, or at least Ritchie's usage of the soundtrack. The tracklist on the film has many a high spot, yet isn't always all that pretty, but Ritchie's placement of and storytelling around the music has it playing or even intensifying the spirit of the film, making it more entertaining and effective. Of course, what really sparks life in this project is Guy Ritchie's and an uncredited Peter Cattaneo's screenplay, which may not be the most unique, as far as story structure is concerned, yet is still riddled with plenty of nifty and versatile set pieces, as well as a seemingly endless barrage of sparklingly dialogue and knockout humor, and it's all really powered by the charming work of Guy Ritchie, as director, and his colorful cast. This film marked the feature film debut of both Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham, and I think that the first few seconds of this film haven't earned enough appreciation for serving as an immediate and awesome testament to what to expect from these two glowing then-new talents, as the very first thing you hear is Ritchie's amazing dialogue going delivered with phenomenal charisma by Jason Statham. Well, to be fair, the opening sequence has Statham's Bacon character pitch-selling stuff to people on the street, and Statham was a street merchant before he got into film, so he at least had experience in that kind of charisma at that point, yet he has no excuse for being so electrically charismatic throughout the rest of the film. Of course, he's not the only person you can say that about in this film, as most everyone is bursting with unforgettable charisma and presence as often dirty but likable characters that really grip and involve you in their situations. Really, on paper, the film is far from a knockout and would have quite decidedly have fallen as nothing more than workmanlike in the hands of less competent filmmakers, yet the project falls into the hands of the inexperienced and comes out, not terribly upstanding, but still better than expected, making it both a promising introduction to great talents both on and off the camera, as well as a generally satisfying piece of entertainment that wins you over much more often than it loses you.

When it's all said and done, the film's limited eventfulness intensifies the sting of some of the slowness found in underproduced films of this type, while that limited production finds itself married often awkwardly with hyper stylizing, leaving the film to feel overstylized at points, but it's hard to never not love the unique style, comprised by handsome and slick cinematography that pumps the film with engaging livliness, though not as thoroughly as the glowing dialogue and humor-riddled screenplay that, with brilliant execution by a directing Guy Ritchie and a colorful cast of fiery charmers, leaves "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" a more enjoyable than expected thrill that also serves as quite the booming entrance for great talents, particularly Guy Ritchie.

3/5 - Good.