Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Quentin always did seem like a British name: "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels"

What's that? You're saying this isn't a Tarantino movie? Well, blimey.

You have to admit, Guy Ritchie's first well-known work owes just a bit to the QT as far as sharp dialogue, double-crossing characters, funky camera work and gratuitous violence. True, all those have been around for a long time in one form or another. But the way Tarantino brought them together in "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction" was amazing, and it's clear Madonna's husband learned something from that.

Seeing "The Bank Job" motivated me to finally watch Jason Statham's first movie, which I had recorded months ago, back in the free movie channel days. Ah, good times. If you've seen "Snatch," you've got an idea of how "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" works. Statham is one of four blokes who get in a pinch after their bid to cash in on a high-stakes card game goes bad. That sets into motion a caper, which leads to other antics, which causes some chaos, and so on and so forth.

Other players include a bigtime gangster, his henchman, a couple of gun-stealing flunkies, a group of pot growers, a black drug dealer, another group of villains and the gangster's enforcer (Vinnie Jones, in his first acting role). I'll admit the first half hour to 45 minutes was spent just figuring out who everyone is. Hey, is that Sting? (Yes, it is.)

Once things get going, though, it's good fun. Yes, everyone is British or Cockney or something hard to understand, so there's no question I missed a few lines. But what I did hear was generally clever, especially some of the exchanges among our hapless heroes and most of what came from the black drug dealer, who had a nice afro to boot.

In all, a perfectly respectable caper movie, and would make a fine double bill with "Snatch." Just sit down with some fish and chips and a pint and have your English-to-American dictionary handy.

1 Comments:

At 11:28 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's been awhile since I've seen this, but I remember thinking it wasn't bad. Jones made a memorable impression. Saw "The Bank Job" myself not long ago and have to admit I like Statham. Not enough, from what I hear, to take in "Crank," but I do have "Revolver" in my Netflix queue.

 

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