Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
It’s fair to say that you either like the gangster movie genre or you don’t, I happen to be a big fan, but it’s a genre of film that the British do rather well.
Over the years this country has produced some of the best gangster movies including the likes of Get Carter and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
And that trend looks set to continue with 44 Inch Chest starring some of the best home grown talent including Ray Winstone, John Hurt and Tom Wilkinson.
Get Carter is one of the most famous movies in the genre and is one of the most iconic roles for legend Michael Caine.
The movie followed Caine, a brutal London gangster, travels to Newcastle to find the truth behind the death of his brother.
Get Carter became the template for gangster movies to come and has influenced many of the movies in the genre that have come before it.
The Long Good Friday was a gritty movie that launched the career of Bob Hoskins. He starred as an East End gangland boss who’s plans to rejuvenate the docklands comes under threat.
London was laid bare for the very first time packing the film with grim realism as well as creating a portrait of a very cruel man.
Martin and Gary Kemp join forces for the big screen telling of the story of The Krays, released in 1990.
Twin siblings Ronald and Reginald Kray resented the English upper crust and flaunted their poor roots like honour badges. Thoroughly brutal men, the only genuine love they had was for their perversely doting mum.
In the 1950s and '60s, the Krays rapidly learned the basics of machine guns and racketeering, and they rose quickly to the top echelon of the British underworld.
Like many of the gangster movies that had gone before it The Krays shoed the violent and savage reality in which they found themselves.
The casting of the Kemp brothers was pivotal to the movie as the director Peter Medak explores the connection between the brothers.
Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels launched the career of filmmaker Guy Ritchie back in 1998; yes it really was over a decade ago.
Richie beautifully blends with gun toting action with humour, which makes the movie very different from the gangster movies that have gone before it.
The movie is bursting with energy, and that is thanks to its great cast, as well as reckless exuberance that makes Ritchie’s directorial debut one to remember.
He followed this up with the equally entertaining Snatch in 2001. The movie is a diamond heist gone helter-skelter, the rough and tumble world of bare knuckle boxing, a colourful Irish gypsy and...a dog.
Writer-director Guy Ritchie’s highly anticipated Snatch is a rollicking ride through London’s gangster world, the bustling diamond district and a rowdy gypsy camp.
As you might expect from Ritchie the movie has a complex an intricate plot as well as a great cast that once again blends action with laugh out loud humour, you have got to love Brad Pitt in this movie.
Other successful gangster movies include Layer Cake by Matthew Vaughn, Sexy Beast by Jonathan Glazer, Brighton Rock by John Boulting and Villain.
44 Inch Chest is released 15th January
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Snatch