Lock Stock..., Sexy Beast and the Contemporary British Gangster Film
Since the late 1990s the British gangster film (whose popularity peaked during the 1970s and again in the early 1980s with films such as Get Carter (1971) and The Long Good Friday (1980)) has undergone a series of re-inventions and re-appraisals. Two films are largely responsible for the cultural renaissance of the genre: Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Ritchie, 1998) which turned 25 in 2023 and Sexy Beast, which turns 25 in 2025.