Jogos, Trapaças e Dois Canos Fumegantes

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is about four London class act stiffs who put their money to a test in a card game until things end up horribly wrong as they owe half a million pounds within a week to come up with the cash. The movie is by all means, enjoyable. The characters are all likable and their sense of humour makes the movie tick up a notch. I found myself laughing a couple times in the film to the jokes. All the actors played their parts pretty well, but my favorite character of the film had to go to Big Chris as Vinnie Jones. He was the most entertaining and how he was always correcting his son if he ever made any mistakes was priceless. The dialogue was really well done by Guy Ritchie, as well as his directing. What I noticed about the movie, was how much it was alike to the 1992 film, Reservoir Dogs. Lock, Stock had colorful characters, robbery that ends up bad, unexpected tragedies, good screenplay as well as directing by one person, and a good sense of humour. All those resemble to Reservoir Dogs, it's not even funny. Overall, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a good and entertaining comedy/crime film that shows a good future to Guy Ritchie aka "The Next Quentin Tarantino", to many. Although it's not up to par with Reservoir Dogs, I still enjoyed it and will be paying a lot of attention to Guy Ritchie's films. I recommend it.

Hedeen's Outlook: 8/10 *** B

If this film had been dubbed for American viewers, (even if it would have lost the magic of the cockney accent), not one person from the States would have said this wasn't a really good film. I didn't even understand most of the dialogues, but the weirdness of the characters and of what they did was really funny. Not hysterically funny, but Funny! The mixture of comedy and violence was the thing that most amused me. The story itself isn't of the most original, but surely efficacious. The photography and the soundtrack were also brilliant and to finish, I saw Pulp Fiction, I loved it, but after seeing LS&2SM I was too busy thinking over and over how much I liked it for noticing a whatsoever similarity with PF. 10 out of 10 is a bit too much… but 9/10 definitely isn't! Watch it!

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels features a lot of local slang and Cockney accents and, while it is far from impossible to comprehend, you will be doing yourself a favour if you follow the dialogue in subtitles. In fact, even the unbearably annoying 'hard-of-hearing' option is welcomed. It follows a group of four very "working class" blokes as they try to help their friend Eddie (Nick Moran) get out of an enormous debt he amassed one night, playing high-roller with a local gang-boss that cheated. The lads resort to illegal ways to get the money, like ripping off their pot-selling next-door neighbours.

This is a really excellent film—entertaining; funny, exciting, and extremely realistic. The style is gorgeous. In fact, I have nothing bad at all to say about it except that it may not be everyone's cup of tea. You also have to be patient with it. That may have been my problem the first time I saw it because I can remember mixing up quite a few people when not paying attention.. Still, the realism of the situations make up for its occasionally slow pace and dialogue-driven plot. For instance, none of these working-class guys know how to handle a gun when they need to, and the result is hilarious. They're not goofy by any means, but they're just normal guys that struggle with the life of crime that they are forced to turn to in order to repay Eddie's debt. Also note the fantastic use of "I Wanna Be Your Dog" by The Stooges. 8/10

Incredibly funny and entertaining story of four young "criminals" out for big money. This is one of the most intelligently written stories I've ever seen. If you like to write screenplays, let this one take you for a spin. Very fast paced film with great editing techniques and a hilarious cast and storyline thats sure to entertain, as long as you can handle the accents. Great cinematography as well. This story will send you through a cork screw. See it once, then see it again to see what you missed.

Guy Ritchie has a skill: the skill to take multi-layered gangster plots, weave them together, and come out with a fabric of the finest quality. I first watched "Snatch", which came after this film. Loved it. Watch this film, which had a similar set-up (the interwoven gangster theme). Loved it. As far as I'm concerned, if Ritchie can maintain this level of creativity, he can keep on making these films until the end of time. His characters are so well scripted and the actors so well chosen, there is a three-dimensional quality to this film, as if you can almost taste the sulfur in the shotgun blasts.

To describe the plot is difficult, unless we choose one character as the hero and the rest as the anti-heroes... but that's hard to do. While certain people seem to be on our side, they're all equally involved in the plot. Kids playing poker, a porn king who cheats at cards, Big Chris the hired thug, the stereotyped black ganja dealer, Barry the Baptist... all great characters.

Another aspect of Ritchie's films is that instead of good vs. evil, he offers us bad versus evil. All the characters do bad things: steal, drink, smoke dope and kill if necessary. But some are simply "bad" (people who would be morally upright in a different setting) and others are "evil" (no moral code at all, black all the way to the core of their heart). This almost non-dichotomy is probably not unique to Ritchie, but is something he excels in. Highest possible recommendation, you nonce!