The groovy, pulsating music and lyrics are often succinctly synchronized with the action and dialogue in the film, creating a theatrical rhythm that is fairly uncommon in cinema (from any period). The soundtrack is first-rate, from the 60's hits of James Brown to the contemporary beats of London's underground. While his secondary performance is solid, as usual, it is also unmemorable. Sting appears briefly in several scenes as a bar-owning father figure. In fact, the only female in the film doesn't even speak, though she handles a machine gun fairly well. The cast is comprised of mostly young, veteran, male actors. The same applies to the laid-back college boys who "grow copious amounts of ganja". It's important to note that the four central characters (a cook, a card sharp, and a couple of guys who sell "discounted" items) are interested only in acquiring the money to pay off their enormous debt they kill no one. The film is quite violent, both on and off screen, but it's also uniformly humorous throughout. While the picture's main focus is on a group of lads who invest money in a high-stakes, rigged card game and lose, the broader story concerns approximately eight different groups of criminals whose paths cross (more> than once, in some cases) during various illegal pursuits: money, guns, drugs, even revenge. Guy Ritchie's hip, highly stylized 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' is a truly remarkable film, not only for its appropriately pyrotechnic camera work, but also for its seemingly flawless, puzzle-perfect script/screenplay. Highest possible recommendation, you nonce! This almost non-dichotomy is probably not unique to Ritchie, but is something he excels in. 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). All the characters do bad things: steal, drink, smoke dope and kill if necessary. Another aspect of Ritchie's films is that instead of good vs. Kids playing poker, a porn king who cheats at cards, Big Chris the hired thug, the stereotyped black ganja dealer, Barry the Baptist. While certain people seem to be on our side, they're all equally involved in the plot. To describe the plot is difficult, unless we choose one character as the hero and the rest as the anti-heroes. 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. 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. Watch this film, which had a similar set-up (the interwoven gangster theme). I first watched "Snatch", which came after this film. 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.
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