Starring: Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Jason Statham, Nick Moran, P.H. Moriarty, Lenny McLean, Stephen Marcus, Vinnie Jones, Jake Abraham, Victor McGuire
Set in East London among the low-rent working class, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels follows the misadventures of four young men looking to get up in the world (Jason Flemyng, Jason Statham, Nick Moran and Dexter Fletcher). The group devises a plan where their card sharp pal will take 100,000 Pounds of their money and make them a fortune at a high-stakes poker game.
Unfortunately for them, the game is run by a shady gangster know as “Hatchet” Harry (P.H. Moriarty) whose primary business is being a porn king, and helped by his strong-arm associate Barry the Baptist (Lenny McLean). The group is cheated and ends up owing the porn king 500,000 Pounds. They must pay the amount owed in a week otherwise they will start to lose important parts of their bodies. Then the real meat of the film begins.
This film has been called Pulp Fiction meets the Full Monty, and they are neither totally correct nor totally wrong. While most American films lately seem to come up strong in the first half, and then fall off pitifully in the second, this film starts out very amusing and then explodes into plot twists and turns with hilarious bounds and rebounds in a plot involving two shotguns and a bag of money.
Rated as one of the best films that involves gambling. Fast and engagingly paced, wittily written, brilliantly directed and non-stop hilarious from beginning to end.
