LOCK STOCK & 2 SMOKING BARRELS |
| Some people prefer the Director’s cut of Blade Runner to the
original studio release and this preference is largely due to the fact that Ridley Scott
removed all the naff voiceover and let the viewers fill in the not-very-difficult to
figure out extra plot themselves. I therefore look forward to a future revised version of
L S & 2 SBs in which the even naffer and more unnecessary voiceovers are removed. As
the film opens with the spiel of a street seller, some highly contrived visuals and a
setup requiring the aforementioned naff voiceovers I thought I was in for an episode of
Eastenders but with lots of swearing. My heart and several other vital organs began to
sink. Happily the film improved very rapidly and I came to understand why it has received
such rave reviews elsewhere. The plot revolves around 4 young men who have to raise half a million to pay off a gambling debt. This requires them to rip off a gang who are ripping off a ganja factory being financed by another gang. This is interwoven with a plot concerning the theft to order of two highly valuable antique rifles by a pair of incompetent amateurs. The climactic scenes feature convoluted plot coincidences and an object lesson in Mexican stand-offs. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the writer and director had been somewhat influenced by Mutt’s favourite director, Quentin Tarantino. OK, OK, I’ll stop prevaricating and tell you that it is a damn good film. The visuals are great except for some odd effects which look like they belonged in a Vodka advert, the sets are suitably grimy, the script is very very funny as evidenced by a woman two seats away from me who kept distracting me with her constant cackling. The acting is wonderful. Well I say acting though I suspect that much of it is attitude rather than the result of hard thespianism. Vinnie Jones is excellent as the hard man enforcer as is Sting in his role as bar-owner and Eddy’s dad . The four lads are cast to perfection as is virtually everyone else in the film. Several dimwit supports show excellent comic timing. The music is dead good too. (Let’s see – constant bad language, witty dialogue, Mexican stand-off, excellent casting, cool soundtrack – are we sure director Guy Ritchie is not related to QT?). I still have a few carping reservations. I don’t believe real villains in real life talk as sharply or with such biting irony as the characters in this film. Essentially this is another disguised form of the American dream despite being set in England. The four leads are all supercool dudes who we are sure are going to walk through the whole thing unscathed whilst nameless sub-villains are shot to death all around. In a sense we are being invited to imagine that this is us – we are immortal and could come through any scrape like this. Yes, I know it’s a black comedy but permit me to be just a little uneasy about it. I enjoyed it a lot but I was also uneasy about the manipulation. Despite my nit-picking reservations this is still an excellent film which I urge you to go and see. If you want to consider it in terms of the fact that it is a British film then it is undoubtedly the best British film in living memory and worth a hundred 4 Weddings and Not the Full Montys. I look forward to Ritchie’s next film. |