Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Where to Watch
- Before Vinnie Jones was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
- The original script for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was written over a decade before production finally began in 1998.
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a 1998 British crime comedy directed by Guy Ritchie in his feature debut. The film follows four East London friends โ played by Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Nick Moran, and Jason Statham โ who lose $500,000 in a rigged card game to a local crime lord and have one week to repay the debt or lose their fingers. Their scheme to recoup the money by robbing their criminal neighbors' marijuana heist intersects with two antique shotguns, a hapless pair of debt collectors, a Nigerian drug lord, and an escalating series of double-crosses that leave bodies and confusion in their wake.
Guy Ritchie's directorial style โ fast editing, freeze-frame character introductions, interconnected storylines that converge in violent chaos, and dialogue delivered in thick British slang โ was immediately distinctive and influential. The film launched both Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham as international talents and spawned a wave of British gangster comedies. Lock, Stock earned $28 million worldwide on a $1.35 million budget.
