Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

What's the point you ask? Well, there's a feeling running through Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels that a very similar list was drawn up by young filmmakers Guy Ritchie, 29, and Matthew Vaughn,26. All the elements of those great, British caper movies -- violence, humour, cockneys -- have been woven into a plot that twists like an adder through a particularly tricky maze (or something).

Normally, a short, concise precis of the plot would be given at this point in the review, but, frankly, that would be impossible. The whole thing is so wonderfully complicated yet so beautifully intertwined that I would not want to ruin it for anyone going to see the movie. And I would urge you to see it. In fact, if you don't go and see Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, I'll send the boys around. Forget the blockbusters, it's one of the movies of the summer -- a new Trainspotting.

To be very brief, streetwise charmer Eddy (Nick Moran) takes part in the biggest card-game of his life with a £100,000 stake that he has borrowed off his mates Tom (Jason Flemyng), Bacon (Jason Stratham), and Soap (Dexter Fletcher). He loses to the tune of half a million and has a week to find the cash or lose the bar owned by his dad JD, played by rock singer Sting.

Oh dear, you think, rock singer Sting in a movie. Well forget about Brimstone and Treacle and Dune and think more along the lines of Quadrophenia. Judge the movie by the sum total of its component parts, and not on the parts themselves.

For instance, footballer Vinnie Jones makes his feature film debut playing Big Chris, an East End 'hard' who menaces people for his boss. He is a revelation. The boy can act good. Some may say playing a menacing hardman on screen isn't that different to his life on the pitch, but it doesn't detract from the fact that he has presence and is convincing in the role.

Ritchie and Vaughn made a deliberate effort to trawl through the East End (yes, I know Vinnie was born in Watford) to find suitable looking geezers to star in the movie. Jason Stratham, for instance, sold dodgy perfumes in Oxford Street before turning to acting and heavyweight bare knuckle champion of the world Lenny McLean plays Barry the Baptist, another thug.

The move works. There is nothing worse than seeing prissy RADA actors trying to be hard -- witness Jude Law in the awful Shopping, who looked like a public school boy stealing cars for kicks rather than a ram-raider from the wrong side of the tracks.

This authenticity adds another level to the movie. If the actors lacked credibility it would be harder to concentrate on the plot -- something that takes a little bit of brain power. Having said that, it flows easily. You can just sit back and enjoy the humour because everything will reveal itself in the end. It is amazing that such a complicated movie manages to tie up all the loose ends by the final credits and not leave any holes.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is very violent, very bloody and very funny. The soundtrack is wonderful, the dialogue sharp. I want to criticise it, but I can't.

And that has nothing to do with the fact that Big Ron is pushing the business end of a sawn off into me barnet as I write this. Gor blimey. Jeremy Austin

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.