LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS: British Film Week at FOMO Cinema Tbilisi
FOMO Secret Cinema, Tbilisi
June 16-21 FOMO is taking a tour through some of the most distinctive films to emerge from the United Kingdom over the last fifty years. Punk manifestos. Social realism. Gangster films. Cult classics. Coming-of-age stories. Music culture. Working-class Britain. Films that helped define entire generations, alongside newer works that show where British cinema is heading today.
LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS
Guy Ritchie | 1998 | United Kingdom | 1h47m | Presented in the original English audio with English subtitles
It's difficult to explain just how much LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS changed British cinema. Today the film feels familiar because so many people copied it. Interlocking storylines. Cockney gangsters. Comic violence. Needle drops. Every few years another filmmaker tries to make the next LOCK, STOCK - and I'd include Guy Ritchie's more recent work in that list. 90% of them fail.
We follow four friends who pool their savings to buy entry to a high-stakes poker game organised by a notorious London crime boss. Unsurprisingly, things go very, very badly. What follows is a chain reaction involving debt collectors, cannabis growers, armed robbers, antique shotguns, and a growing army of fast-talking crims who have absolutely no idea what's going on. Nearly every character is incompetent and they all think they're smarter than they actually are.
The film marked the arrival of Guy Ritchie as a major commercial filmmaker. British cinema in the 1990s had produced enormous successes like TRAINSPOTTING, but LOCK, STOCK felt different. It was louder, faster and more interested in entertainment than social commentary.
I've paired it with SNATCH because together they showcase some of the funniest, most daring cinema of the last quarter century. Most directors spend their careers trying to perfect a style. Ritchie somehow arrived with one fully formed. SNATCH would refine the formula, but LOCK, STOCK is where the lightning first struck.
FOOD AND DRINK POLICY: FOMO Cinema Lounge Bar opens 1 hour before the first screening of the day and closes at 02:00, serving a wide selection of beer, wine, cocktails, and non-alcoholic refreshments including coffee and tea, as well as fresh hot popcorn! Outside food is allowed in the bar but not in the cinema. No alcohol from outside allowed. All guests are invited to arrive early and stay late!
LOCATION: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro.
HOW TO FIND FOMO: Enter Bazari Orbeliani via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left to Level 1. Signage on the door. You can also check our Instagram story highlights for a video showing exactly how to find us: https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3OTMzMTA2Mjk0MDI5MjM1
FOMO Secret Cinema • Bazari Orbeliani, 0105 Tbilisi, Georgia
