Maturity is doing well for Guy Ritchie, who in recent years has not stopped delivering his most fabulous films. Whether from the poisonous elegance of ‘The Gentlemen: Los señores la mafia’, the classic fun of ‘Operation UNCLE’ or the black cannon shot of ‘Awaken the Fury’, the British find a much more dazzling cinematic fervor and fang than in his period making blockbusters and, if you allow me, more consistent than in his beginnings.
Although they have many fans, ‘Snatch. Pigs and Diamonds’ and ‘RocknRolla’ have always felt like they were too in love with themselves. So obsessed with making their slum vibe cool that they leave a bit of freshness and fun along the way that, on the other hand, is in their debut. The movie that started it allincluding her relationship with Jason Statham: ‘Lock & Stock‘.
two smoking barrels
Available on Amazon Prime Video, as well as on Filmin or Movistar+, the film features this gang of four friends who think they are going to break the bank in a game of cards, without realizing that the game is rigged from the beginning and ending with an almost millionaire debt with the biggest gangster in the neighborhood. To avoid problems, they are going to end up involved in bigger ones when trying to pay off the debt with what they get from a robbery.
Charismatic from the beginning, with his thug character where there is room for heist thrillers, neo-noir and black comedy, Ritchie makes a dazzling movie which makes the perfect platform for your cast of strangers. Statham, who also makes his film debut here (he had previously dedicated himself to Olympic jumping), is a small revelation along with Nick MoranJason Flemyng and Dexter Fletcher.
Seen as an ingenious reply to Quentin Tarantino’s cinema from the most bile-laden British phlegm, ‘Lock & Stock’ really manages to have its own personality with various references, some shared with the American filmmaker and others not. The important thing, yes, is that it combines all those influences learned in a work that feels as personal as still imperfect by youth.
‘Lock & Stock’: badass charm
The keys are already here, from the use of violence to the badass characters covered with a certain finesse tinged with tar. And the use of humor so that one does not run away. He now does a better version of this movie, but here at its purest version without sanded splinters it offers interesting details as well as fun and dirty entertainment that is totally satisfying.
We would also see Statham better after this film (even in Ritchie’s last two films, including ‘Fortune Operation: The Great Hoax’, where he is superb), but it is interesting to look at him and begin to glimpse details of that charisma that gives him they have become a star of the most intense and raw action. Things that can be refined, but not fully learned, and thus ‘Lock & Stock’ still looking fresh within its apparent immaturity.