Oy, Mate

The ’90s was a challenging time for theater marquees. After painstakingly creating the pronouncements, letter by letter, for films such as Things to Do in Denver . . . or Don’t Be a Menace . . . , the attendance barely made all that reaching and spelling worthwhile. So leave it to brash filmmaker Guy Ritchie to get those audiences in the seats, introducing himself with the cocking of a gun and a pub’s worth of British street jargon with his Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. This now-10-year-old gangster classic didn’t just launch a future ex-Mr. Madonna, but also gave us the far more prolific Jason Statham—a cockney Bruce Willis for the 21st century! Enter a world of broad-shouldered brutes, indecipherable slang and cheeky nicknames. Kind of like Washington, D.C., but with better suits.
Thu., Nov. 6, 7:30 p.m., 2008