Where British cinema is concerned, there is a before Guy Ritchie, and an after Guy Ritchie. Nothing was ever the same once he unveiled Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. An entire cottage industry of imitators sprung up, practically overnight (and persevere to this day) – movies about guns and lads that were never quite able to recapture Ritchie’s frenetic style, nor the magnetic chemistry between its ensemble of crooks, villains and perm-sporting Scousers.
A quarter of a century later, Lock Stock exists as a cornerstone of British culture. It was released at a time of Cool Britannia, Britpop and the Spice Girls. The Tories had just been booted out of power after nearly 20 years in Downing Street, and Tony Blair was telling us that things could only get better. British cinema too, was having quite the moment. The likes of Trainspotting, The Full Monty and Mike Leigh’s Secrets & Lies had gone global. British period dramas were perennial Oscar favourites. Hugh Grant was one of the biggest stars in the world. But Lock Stock, with its swaggering confidence and Americanisation of traditional British gangster movie tropes, captured more than just a moment in time.
