Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1999)

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 | Comment

Andrew Sarris

New York Observer

Top Critic

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

March 19, 2002 Full Review | Comments (5)

Liam Lacey

Globe and Mail

Top 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

Peter Travers

Rolling Stone

Top Critic

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

January 1, 2000 Full Review | Comment

David Edelstein

Slate

Top 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 | Comment (1)

Joe Baltake

Sacramento Bee

Top Critic

Lock, Stock is fun, in a slapdash way; it has an exuberance, and in a time when movies follow formulas like zombies, it's alive.

January 1, 2000 Full Review | Comment (1)

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Top 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 | Comment

Bill Gibron

PopMatters

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

February 9, 2006 Full Review | Comment

Geoff Andrew

Time Out

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

December 17, 2004 Comment

Louis-Jérôme Cloutier

Panorama

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

Jeffrey Overstreet

Looking Closer

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

June 22, 2004 Full Review | Comments (2)

Judith Egerton

Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)

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 | Comment

Jeff Vice

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 | Comment

Boston Phoenix

• 1. Rory Breaker: If the milk turns out to be sour, I ain't the kind of pussy to drink it. You know what I mean, Nick?
  – Submitted by Miles G (40 days ago)
• 1. Bacon: Right. Let's sort the buyers from the spyers, the needy from the greedy, and those who trust me from the ones who don't, because if you can't see value here today, you're not up here shopping. You're up here shoplifting. You see these goods? Never seen daylight, moonlight, Israelite. Fanny by the gaslight. Take a bag, c'mon take a bag. I took a bag home last night. Cost me a lot more than ten pound, I can tell you. Anyone like jewelry? Look at that one there. Handmade in Italy, hand-stolen in Stepney. It's as long as my arm. I wish it was as long as something else. Don't think because these boxes are sealed up, they're empty. The only man who sells empty boxes is the undertaker, and by the look of some of you lot today, I'd make more money with me measuring tape. Here, one price. Ten pound.
  2. Eddy: Did you say ten pound?
  3. Bacon: Are you deaf?
  4. Eddy: That's a bargain. I'll take one.
  5. Bacon: Squeeze in if you can. Left leg, right leg, your body will follow. They call it walking. You want one as well, darling? You do? That's it. They're waking up. Treat the wife. Treat somebody else's wife. It's a lot more fun if you don't get caught. Hold on. You want one as well? Okay, darling, show me a bit of life then. It's no good standing out there like one o'clock half-struck. Buy them, you better buy them. These are not stolen, they just haven't been paid for, and we can't get them again. They've changed the bloody locks. Here. One for you. It's no good coming back later when I've sold out. 'Too late, too late' will be the cry when the man with the bargains has passed you by. If you got no money on you now, you'll be crying tears as big as October cabbages.
  6. Eddy: Bacon, cozzers!
  7. Bacon: Shit.
  – Submitted by Andrew G (41 days ago)
• 1. Bacon: Harry didn't think that he did a very good job, so he grabbed the nearest thing to hand, which just so happened to be a 15 inch black rubber cock, and proceeded to beat poor old Smithy to death with. And that was seen as a nice way to go. Now, that, is why you pay Hatchet Harry, when you owe.
  – Submitted by Andrew G (41 days ago)
• 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 (10 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 (11 months ago)