Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Directed by Guy Ritchie, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels follows four friends, including Jason Statham’s Bacon and Dexter Fletcher’s Soap, as they’re caught up in a dangerous scheme involving a powerful crime lord and several small-time hoods. First-time filmmaker Ritchie, working from his own screenplay, has infused the bulk of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels‘ overlong running time with a dense, impenetrable feel that generally prevents the viewer from embracing the complex narrative, and there’s little doubt, certainly, that Ritchie’s unwillingness (or inability) to offer up a single interesting, well-developed character only exacerbates the arms-length atmosphere – with the relentless barrage of tough-guy dialogue, as a result, hardly able to pack the exciting, visceral punch for which Ritchie is obviously striving. (It doesn’t help, either, that Ritchie and director-of-photography Tim Maurice-Jones have suffused the proceedings with an ugly, sepia-tinted visual sensibility that remains a complete distraction from start to finish.) The woefully uninvolving vibe paves the way for a midsection and second half that couldn’t possibly be less interesting (or more endless), which is particularly disappointing, certainly, given that Ritchie packs the third act with a number of violent confrontations that should, by all rights, elevate the viewer’s attention considerably. (One just doesn’t have anything invested in any of these people, ultimately.) By the time the anticlimactic finale rolls around, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels has cemented its place as a serious misfire that squanders an impressive roster of performers and seemingly foolproof setup.

* out of ****