Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a hilarious, highly entertaining British heist romp that brings together cutthroat cardshark pornographers, naive drug dealers, ruthless (yet paternal) heavies, vindictive Samoan gangsters, a pair of antique shotguns, and a quartet of likable yet devious young blokes looking for a way to get rich quick.

Eastenders Tom (Jason Flemyng), Bacon (Jason Statham) and Soap (Dexter Fletcher) all manage to find £100,000 so that their hot-shot poker playing mate Eddy (Nick Moran) can enter a high-stakes card game run by porn king Hatchet Harry (PH Moriarty).

But before you can say “pontoon”, Eddy’s down half a million in a game that was set-up. He is given one week to pay up, or else debt collector Big Chris (Vinnie Jones, pictured above, who consumes the screen with pent-up menace) will be round to collect Eddy’s fingers as interest.

Desperate for some quick cash, the lads hit upon the idea of ripping off the thugs next door, who are themselves planning to turn over a bunch of toffs – led by Winston (Steven Mackintosh) – who have a skunk farm in their flat and a stack of loot lying around.

But needless to say, the path of the criminally incompetent doesn’t run smooth and soon Eddy and the gang find themselves being hunted down by three gangs at once.

Sting – as Eddy’s dad – can cancel the debt by handing over his bar, lock, stock and barrel to his old adversary, Harry.

First-time director Guy Ritchie, who cut his teeth on music videos, crafted a hilariously twisted, razor-sharp comedy gangster thriller that’s littered with as many corpses as choice one-liners and colourful characters. Violent, stylish and occasionally uproariously funny.

Tom
Jason Flemyng
Soap
Dexter Fletcher
Bacon
Jason Statham
Eddy
Nick Moran
JD (Eddy’s Dad)
Sting
Big Chris
Vinnie Jones
Hatchet Harry
PH Moriarty
Barry the Baptist
Lenny McLean
Winston
Steven Mackintosh

Director
Guy Ritchie