Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Title: Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.
Year: 1998
Director: Guy Ritchie
Lead: Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Nick Moran, Jason Statham
Rated: Rated R for strong violence, pervasive language, sexuality and drug content.

Four friends find them selves in deep debt to a wealthy and powerful "businessman". They only have a week to come up with the money.

I have just recently discovered how awesome Guy Ritchie actually is. His style is unrivaled, and his stories are almost flawless. The way that he can bring several story lines together and create huge on-screen moments is absolutely awesome. LSTSB is a super cool British crime movie that has Guy Ritchie all over it, he has about 4 different story lines and great transitions in between them. The story itself is pretty comical; these four friends lose a bunch of money to a sex shop owner and only have a week to pay him back, so they have to come up with the money. They end up getting a break when they overhear their neighbors planning to rob a few weed growers. Long story short, the money changes hands about four times and ends up in the most unlikely persons pocket. The ending of the film was awesome, it reminded me of the Michael Caine Italian Job (If you've seen the movie, you know what I'm saying). The camera work in this movie is cool, some pretty neat shots, I especially enjoyed the shot when Eddy loses the money and is walking out of the gym all dazed. Its really awesome. I definitely recommend checking this out, its Guy's first feature, so its a perfect way to introduce yourself to his style. 7.5 out of 10

Limitless

Title: Limitless
Year: 2011
Director: Neil Burger
Lead: Bradely Cooper
Rated: Rated PG-13 for thematic material involving a drug, violence including disturbing images, sexuality and language.

A man acquires super brain power with the use of a mystery drug.

I went to see Limitless with two of my friends the other night, and I can say that I was the least excited of the three of us to see the movie. I can now say, however, that after the credits rolled, I was probably the most impressed. I expected to see a cookie cutter Hollywood thriller, but what I got was an extremely stylized, "Fight Clubesque" suspense, action film. The film started at the end (or so we thought). I'm always fascinated with this, and the use of this method was very successful. The writing for this movie was great. The story was brilliant, I did however, think to myself during the movie that there were some really unbelievable scenes, but then I was able to justify it by reminding myself that THIS WHOLE MOVIE IS FAR OUT! The style that Burger used to tell the story was really quite crazy, lots of nauseating fish-eye shots and these really blinding, never ending dolly shots that seemed like they traveled the entire distance of Manhattan. His style did seem to step on the story a little bit, but ultimately, it was simply awesome, and like I said, it reminded me a lot of Fight Club. Limitless should definitely not be passed up if you have the chance to see it. Its a pretty wholesome movie. 7.5 out of 10