In the late 90’s, several filmmakers made their attempt to capitalize on the success of Pulp Fiction. One film that many feel was a clear attempt to do just that was Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.
The film stars Jason Stratham, Nick Moran, Jason Flemyng, and Dexter Fletcher as a group of buddies who are always trying to scheme their way into money. The film begins with Stratham’s character of Bacon trying to sell off stolen goods on a street corner with his buddy Eddy, played by Nick Moran, trying to work up the crowd into a buying frenzy.
Flemyng and Fletcher play Tom and Soap and they join Bacon and Eddy in a scheme to try and fleece a high stakes game of three card poker. They get together around £100,000 and Eddy is supposed to use his “superior skills” to win the group a boatload of cash.
Unfortunately for them things do not go their way and they lose to the tune of over £500,000. The four are then given just one week to repay their debt or they will start receiving their own version of a five finger discount, one finger at a time.
The guys decide that they will knock off some old guy with two antique shotguns to pay off their debt. Considering their level of ineptness to this point, they clearly are going to screw this up and now the movie becomes a series of misadventures as the guys try to find a way to come up with the cash to save their digits.
Unlike Pulp Fiction, this film is more of a comedy than a straight action film, but the dialogue and wit of the characters remind viewers of Pulp Fiction. The director of the film, Guy Ritchie, strongly asserts that he did not try and play off Pulp Fiction but most that have watched both films agree that it had to have influenced the film.
Both Jason Stratham and Guy Ritchie became household named from Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. It is a film with excellent dialogue and is a one of those films that has an almost cult like following. If you’ve never watched this movie, now is a good time to go down to the closest RedBox machine to rent, or head over to Amazon to purchase a copy.
