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Sunday, January 23, 2011

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels


Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a 1998 British crime film directed and written byGuy Ritchie. The story is a heist film involving a self-confident young card sharp who loses £500,000 to a powerful crime lord in a rigged game of three card brag. In order to pay off his debts, he and his friends decide to rob a small-time gang who happen to be operating out of the flat next door. The film garnered Guy Ritchie international acclaim, and introduced actors Vinnie Jones, a former Welsh international footballer, and Jason Statham, to worldwide audiences.
A television series, Lock, Stock..., followed in 2000.

Plot

Long-time friends Bacon, Soap, Tom and Eddie put together £100,000 to play in Harry "The Hatchet" Lonsdale's high-stakes three card brag game. Harry learns from his bodyguard Barry "the Baptist" that Eddie is a genius at cards, and so fixes the game. When Eddie loses, Harry demands Eddie's father's bar as part of the £500,000 owed, giving Eddie a week to come up with the money; Barry the Baptist tells Eddie that he will remove a finger from each of the four friends for every day the debt is overdue.
After several days with no luck acquiring the funds, Eddie returns home and overhears his neighbours, a gang of thieves led by a man named Dog, planning a heist on some marijuanagrowers supposedly loaded with cash and drugs. Eddie relays this information to the group, intending for them to rob the neighbours as they come back from their heist. Tom acquires a pair of antique shotguns from an underground dealer, known as Nick "the Greek", who also strikes a deal with Rory Breaker, a gangster and sociopath, to purchase the stolen drugs. Nick had purchased the guns from a pair of bungling small-time criminals, Gary and Dean, who had stolen them from a bankrupt lord as part of a job for Harry Lonsdale, not realizing that of the entire stolen firearms collection, his only desire was the two antique shotguns. After learning the guns had been sold, an enraged Harry threatens the two into getting them back.
The neighbours' heist goes underway; despite a gang member being killed by his own Bren Gun, and having an incriminating encounter with a traffic warden, the job is a success. Upon returning to their flat, the gang is ambushed by the four friends, who take the loot and return later that night to stash the goods next door before celebrating with a wild night of drinking.
Rory Breaker discovers that the drugs he was going to purchase were stolen from him, as the marijuana growers were in his employ. Rory interrogates Nick into revealing where the four friends live, and enlists one of the chemists to identify the robbers. Meanwhile, furious about their loss, Dog throws one of his men through the wall of their flat and discovers the stolen goods. While he counts the money, his men prepare to ambush the four friends. Gary and Dean, trying to recover the antique shotguns, call Nick, who directs them to the same address, while Big Chris, Harry's debt collector, departs with his son to the same destination, and the four friends drive home from the bar.
Rory and his gang assault the flat and have a shootout with the neighbours, resulting in the deaths of all but Dog and the lone chemist, the latter taking off with the marijuana. Dog is mugged by Big Chris of the shotguns and money during his escape; Gary and Dean hastily follow Big Chris, while the four friends return to find their loot missing. Big Chris gives the guns and cash to Harry but on his return finds Dog threatening to kill his son if he doesn't retrieve the loot. Desperate to get the guns, Gary and Dean attack Harry and Barry at their office, realizing their mistake, as they kill each other. The four friends arrive, finding everyone dead, and take the cash back. Big Chris suddenly crashes into their car to disable Dog, then brutally bludgeons him to death with his car door. He takes the debt money back from the unconscious friends but allows Tom to leave with the antique shotguns.
The friends are arrested, but declared innocent after the traffic warden identified Dog's dead gang as the prime suspects. The four reunite at Eddie’s father’s bar, and decide that Tom should dispose of the shotguns, which link them to the crimes. After Tom leaves, Big Chris arrives to admit he is keeping the debt money for himself and his son, but instead gives them an antique guns catalog, which reveals that the antique shotguns were each worth a fortune. They quickly call Tom, and the film ends in a both literal and figuritive cliffhanger when Tom’s mobile phone starts ringing as he hangs over the side of a bridge, preparing to drop the shotguns into the River Thames deciding as to whether to answer the phone or drop the guns into the river.

[edit]Cast

[edit]Cast notes

The film originally starred Laura Bailey as Eddie's love interest. This major plotline was only removed after filming had been completed. The role of JD, Eddie's father, is played by the English musician Sting. Sting's wife Trudie Styler was an executive producer on the film, and the two later introduced director Ritchie to Madonna, whom he later married.
The role of Barry "the Baptist" was played by legendary hardman Lenny McLean also known as "The Guv'nor" after becoming the country's top bare-knuckle fighter. McLean became ill during filming, but believed he was only suffering from a lingering case of the flu. McLean died of brain and lung cancer on July 28, 1998, just before the film was released. Producers quickly changed billboards and posters to feature Lenny McLean as a tribute, even though Barry was only a supporting character.
Ross Boatman turned down a starring role in the film, as he did not wish to be typecast following his appearance in Hard Men. The film uses Dexter Fletcher, P.H. Moriarty and Alan Ford in a tribute to the classic London gangster film The Long Good Friday. This is the second film P.H. Moriarty and Sting both appeared in - the other being the film version of Quadrophenia.

[edit]Release and reception

The film was released on 28 August 1998 in the UK, and on 5 March 1999 in the U.S. in 161 theaters. Its total gross in the U.S. was $3,753,929.[2]
The film has received positive reviews from critics, and received acclaim from audiences everywhere, thus giving it cult film status. John Ferguson, writing for the Radio Times, called the film "the best British crime movie since The Long Good Friday"[3]. The film has ratings of 73% on Rotten Tomatoes and 66 on Metacritic.
The film was nominated for a British Academy Film Award in 1998 for the outstanding British Film of the Year. In 2000, Ritchie won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. In 2004, the magazine Total Film named Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels the 38th greatest British film of all time.

[edit]Soundtrack

Soundtrack from the Motion Picture Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Soundtrack by various artists
Released1998
GenreRock
Pop
Brit pop
Reggae
Length62:54 (UK)
43:32 (US)
LabelIsland Records (UK)
Warner Bros. (US)
Professional reviews
Guy Ritchie film soundtracks chronology
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
(1998)
Snatch
(2000)
The soundtrack to the film was released in 1998 in the United Kingdom by Island Records.Madonna's Maverick Records label released the soundtrack in the United States in 1999 but omitted nine tracks from the UK release.

[edit]Track listing

  1. "Hundred Mile High City" by Ocean Colour Scene
  2. "It's a Deal, It's a Steal" by Tom, Nick & Ed*
  3. "The Boss" by James Brown
  4. "Truly, Madly, Deeply" by Skanga*
  5. "Hortifuckinculturalist" - Winston
  6. "Police and Thieves" by Junior Murvin
  7. "18 With a Bullet" by Lewis Taylor & Carleen Anderson*
  8. "Spooky" by Dusty Springfield
  9. "The Game" by John Murphy & David Hughes*
  10. "Muppets" by Harry, Barry & Gary
  11. "Man Machine" by Robbie Williams*
  12. "Walk This Land" by E-Z Rollers
  13. "Blaspheming Barry" by Barry
  14. "I Wanna Be Your Dog" by The Stooges
  15. "It's Kosher" by Tom & Nick
  16. "Liar Liar" by The Castaways*
  17. "I've Been Shot" by Plank & Dog
  18. "Why Did You Do It" by Stretch
  19. "Guns 4 show, knives for a pro" by Ed & Soap
  20. "Oh Girl" by Evil Superstars
  21. "If the Milk Turns Sour" by John Murphy & David Hughes (with Rory)*
  22. "Zorba the Greek" by John Murphy & David Hughes
  23. "I'll Kill Ya" by John Murphy & David Hughes (with Rory)*
  24. "The Payback" by James Brown
  25. "Fool's Gold" by The Stone Roses*
  26. "It's Been Emotional" by Big Chris
  27. "18 With a Bullet" by Pete Wingfield



* Track omitted from 1999 U.S. release.


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