Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels [Blu-ray][Region Free]

Irreverent, violent and wickedly clever, this smart-mouthed UK crime picture concerns four nice loveable rouges who get into some bad company and must get themselves out before things get really ugly. Cardsharp Eddie wheedles his way into a high stakes game run by a unpleasant porn peddler and all-around nasty villain Hatchet Harry, thinking he can turn his £100,000 stake into some really big money. But the game's rigged and Eddie walks away owing Harry £500,000; if he doesn't pay up in a week, Harry's gangsters will take Eddie's dad's bar in lieu of the cash. Oh, and three-quarters of the original stake belonged to Eddie's three pals, who can ill-afford to lose that kind of money. Fortunately, the flat next door to Eddie's houses four extravagantly loud ammeter and incompetent coke sniffing weed selling drug dealing thieves and the walls are very thin: so Eddie knows the blundering baddies have a big score in the works, and ripping them off to appease Hatchet Harry seems a reasonable way out of the mess.

When it comes to characters, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels boasts no fewer than 22 significant roles. Many of the actors are not recognizable faces. In fact, a few of them are making their motion picture debuts. For the most part, everyone does a solid job essaying one of the various inept thugs or criminals. Those familiar with the British soap "Eastenders" will find that any of the characters from Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels would fit into the neighborhood of Albert Square with little difficulty ( Some have even ended up there) . Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels has plenty of laughs and a few surprises to offer to all but the most squeamish of viewers. It's a superior thriller made with the guts and gusto that too many recycled entries into the genre fail to exhibit. It's a slickly edited movie with no real stand-out performances (in fact some of the London accents are well dodgy), but the presence of soccer hardman Vinnie Jones, making his surprisingly effective acting debut.

This larky, self-aware crime picture has Tarantino-esque written all over it. First-time writer-director Guy Ritchie appears to have been paying attention to what made Reservoir Dogs work. Consequently, his film has both characters and a story, complicated by a slew of carefully worked out intertwing subplots involving boneheaded burglars, antique shotguns, yuppie hydroponic dope farmers, Debit Collectors, Hit men, Jamaican drug dealers and multiple gangs of hard. The film relies uniquely on heavily on ironic plot twists, blink and you will be lost. One of the most enjoyable aspects of Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels is appreciating the way in which the story unfolds, using both expected and unanticipated turns to enhance the comic flavor. To the very end, the movie manages to be unpredictable, and it never loses its sense of humor.

Surface likenesses aside, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels is actually a kinder, gentler motion picture than Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction. While there's as much violence. All of the most vicious acts occur off screen. We see the ramifications, but we miss the genuine brutality. This effectively distances the viewer from the bloodshed, allowing us to see the proceedings in an almost surreal light.
If the criminal ranks in London are comprised of losers like this, it's a wonder that anyone gets away with anything.

As you all know, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is one of Britain's best loved films so i wont talk about the movie. The reason for this review is to see whether it is worth buying over the original DVD that was released about 7 years ago. I have both and the only difference is that the new 2 disc edition does have a fair amount of extras that add up to just over an hour. The main 50 minute feature which is the making of.. is very good and often funny to watch with interviews from both 1998 and 2005. Then theres a few trailers and tv spots, an additional 10 mintute featurette that talks about the editing of the movie, an interactive east london map with the films locations, and a very funny if a little immature 2 minute featurette titled 'lock stock and two f**king barrels which just consists of random scenes with all the swear words.

As for the picture and sound quality of the movie, it definitely hasnt improved from the last DVD and unfortunately is still a little poor. Guess we'll just have to wait for the High Definition DVD to come out to get perfect quality.

Undoubtedly, i definitely prefer the newer version even though the extras could have definitely been better, a director's commentary from Guy Richie would have been nice and the picture quality couldve have been better too. Also the featurette that was included in the last DVD isnt present in this one although all the extras on the new one are far better anyway. So if you can get this for under £10 and dont already own the older DVD version then go for it, however to those who already have the old version and are thinking of buying this 2 disc special edition then i personally wouldnt, seeing as an extra £7-10 isnt worth it for the 1 hour of extras provided on this new DVD.

Audio: English dts-hd master audio 5.1
French,german,castillian spanish dts soundround 5.1
Subtitles: english sdh, french, canadian french, german, latin american spanish, dutch