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Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1999)

tomatometer

75

Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 57
Fresh: 43 | Rotten: 14

Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels is a grimy, twisted, and funny twist on the Tarantino hip gangster formula.

63

Average Rating: 5.9/10
Critic Reviews: 16
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 6

Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels is a grimy, twisted, and funny twist on the Tarantino hip gangster formula.

audience

92

liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 275,344

My Rating

Movie Info

British writer Guy Ritchie made his feature directorial debut with this crime-caper comedy-drama set in London's East End and heavy on the Cockney dialogue (with one scene in subtitled Cockney rhyming slang). A big-bucks scheme goes awry: Cardsharp Eddy (Nick Moran) and pals Bacon (Jason Statham), Tom (Jason Flemyng), and Soap (Dexter Fletcher) scuffle to pile up enough money to put Eddy at the card table opposite gangland porn lord Hatchet Harry (P.H. Moriarty). Unfortunately, the whole plan

R, 1 hr. 45 min.

Drama, Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense, Comedy

Guy Ritchie

Aug 31, 1999

Gramercy Pictures

Cast

All Critics (63) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (45) | Rotten (14) | DVD (23)

I was thoroughly entertained while I was watching it, and I haven't hated myself since. And that is something, though I don't know exactly what.

April 27, 2007 Full Review Source: New York Observer | Comment
New York Observer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The best one can say is that it's a smart cartoon, and a fairly exhausting viewing experience.

March 19, 2002 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comments (4)
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Even when the accents are as indecipherable as the plot, Ritchie keeps the action percolating and the humor on high.

June 5, 2001 Comment
Rolling Stone
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels is the laborious title of an even more laborious Cockney action movie.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Slate | Comment
Slate
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The film had me alternating between a sugar high and drowsiness. One minute, I struggled to keep awake; the next, I was jumping in my seat. Neither extreme is particularly pleasurable.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee | Comment (1)
Sacramento Bee
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The punchy little flourishes that load this English gangster film with attitude are perfectly welcome, because there's no honest, substantial part of the movie they can hurt.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

What his other movies have done summarily or languidly, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels does with some clear novice stumbles. It's creative and very clever. It's just not a classic.

December 3, 2009 Full Review Source: PopMatters | Comment
PopMatters

Expect plenty of laughs and some edge-of-your-seat sweats, but not a whole lot else.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels est du trčs bon cinema.

December 17, 2004 Comment

If only it could have resisted revelry in its own style and violence, it might have been one 1999's best films, due to its performances and clever plot twists.

December 6, 2004 Comment
Looking Closer

Fans of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown are in for a treat.

June 22, 2004 Full Review Source: Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) | Comments (2)

Though Ritchie isn't the most accomplished filmmaker, his artistic use of freeze-frames, slow motion and other camera trickery proves he is a precocious talent to be reckoned with in the future.

April 10, 2002 Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | Comment
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Ritchie orchestrates the plots and anti-plots with the delight of a sadistic child; by the end of this film, his career shows signs of smoking.

March 24, 2002 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | Comment
Boston Phoenix
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

I didn't think it was quite a masterpiece, but it came pretty damn close. This movie pretty much put Guy Ritchie on the map, kinda like what Reservoir Dogs did for Tarantino. Now, Ritchie claimed to have never seen any Tarantino film before he made this, but I have a hard time believing that. This feels like a nice

June 9, 2006
cosmo313
Chris Weber

Super Reviewer

A terrifically entertaining Tarantino-esque exercise in foul-mouth dialogue and violent altercations, concerning a card guru (Nick Moran) who gets cheated by a corrupt porn lord in a high-stakes game of poker where he goes to far in, and thus owes him half a million pounds within a short-period of time. It is dirty,

September 8, 2007
Dan Schultz

Super Reviewer

    1. Tom: It's a deal, it's a steal. It's the sale of the fucking century. In fact, fucking, Nick, I think I'll keep it.
    – Submitted by Julianna S (6 months ago)
    1. Rory Breaker: If you hold back anything, I'll kill ya. If you bend the truth or I think you're bending the truth, I'll kill ya. If you forget anything, I'll kill ya. In fact, you're gonna have to work very hard to stay alive, Nick. Now, do you understand everything I've just said? 'Cause if you don't, I'll kill ya!
    – Submitted by Yury M (8 months ago)
    1. Eddy: What I do know is there's no more Harry. Which means there's no more debt.
    – Submitted by Yury M (8 months ago)
    1. Eddy: They're armed.
    2. Soap: What was that? Armed? What do you mean armed? Armed with what?
    3. Eddy: Err, bad breath, colorful language, feather duster... what do you think they're gonna be armed with? Guns, you tit!
    – Submitted by Nastya B (9 months ago)
    1. Soap: A minute ago this was the safest job in the world. Now it's turning into a bad day in Bosnia.
    – Submitted by Nastya B (9 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Bube Dame König grAs (DE)
  • Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels (CA)
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