Lock, Stock...-And Four Stolen Hooves (2000)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	86:51
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Sherree Folkson
Studio Distributor	Shock Entertainment	Starring	Ralph Brown Daniel Caltagirone Scott Maslen Shaun Parkes Del Synott Christopher Adamson
Case	C-Button-Version 2
RPI	$9.95	Music	John Lunn

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This is the movie-length premiere of the TV series based around the original movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels by director Guy Richie (who also had some involvement in this series as an executive producer). This short-lived series was produced by Channel 4 International who have made many fine series in the past. Unfortunately, this lacked a little something and ended up on the scrap heap long before it got any chance to develop. Involving the original four characters from the movie (Bacon, Lee, Moon and Jamie), although not the same actors, it had a variety of villains and nasties all centred around the pub owned by the lads called the Lock.

    This episode attempts to set up the series by explaining details of who the lads are, who their adversaries are and who to avoid. The first twenty minutes almost had me bored to tears, but I'll forgive them that since I have watched the series out of order and if you had no idea of the original movie, this attempts to rectify that in as short a space of time as possible. From that point on though, it must be said, this became quite entertaining and contains easily the best plot of all the episodes and some of the only real humour as well.

    The Dutchies are back in town but the clogheads have no head for business, although they do know a good thing when they steal it. At a truck stop, they pinch a truck stuffed to the gills with illicit videos and offer the lads the lot at a steal, including a very unique watch. Wanting a quick sale, the lads offer half the lot out to Nefarious, who has just done some business with Miami Vice, the local crime boss. Miami has given Nefarious a nice tip for the races and he passes this onto the lads. Next stop is another well-known crime figure, Firebug, who has a tendency to set things alight. After a rather anxious moment in which they on-sell the rest of the videos, they seek to beat a hasty retreat but Jamie isn't so lucky. Sensing trouble, he offers Firebug the certainty and Firebug hands him a wad of cash to put on the horse's nose. Beating a retreat, the lads decide to have themselves a day out at the races.

    Things go well - the horse wins and the lads are living it up, but Moon has also passed on the information about the horse to his relatives who miss the race and decide to partake of the lads' winnings instead. Drinking them under the table and absconding with crates of champagne, the lads are left with rotten hangovers, no cash and a car that conks out halfway home. Deciding to steal the first motor they come across, they steal a horse float, not realising it contains the horse they won their money on, Sherbet who is owned by none other than Miami Vice. From here on, things get interesting as the lads end up with a stolen horse who is always hungry, no money to pay back Firebug who is threatening to burn down their pub unless they come up with the readies plus 100% interest, and the watch Jamie was wearing but which they believe the horse has eaten. At the same time, Miami Vice is breathing hard down everyone's neck.

    This is easily the most entertaining of the Lock, Stock episodes with lots of variety, interesting characters and plenty going on to keep you interested, except for, as I said earlier, for the first 20-odd minutes.

Video

    There isn't much to say about this that I haven't already noted in the other reviews of the series. If you've seen one episode then you'll know exactly what to expect of this one as well. This is probably the best quality of all the discs and very decently presented for a TV series.

    The transfer is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    Again this is very sharp with some noticeable edge enhancement, but it is easy on the eye. The shadow detail depends a lot on the lighting used but on the whole it is excellent. There is no low level noise and grain was happily almost invisible during most of this transfer.

    Typical of the whole series, the colour varies from scene to scene. Occasionally a slight green line can be seen around the cast, probably due to the filtering and strong background lighting being employed, otherwise this is on a par with all the other episodes in the series.

    This is another clean transfer on a par with the rest of the episodes available in this series. There is some noticeable aliasing (3:46, 46:05 on Jamie's shirt) and lots of very minor shimmering (eg: 40:37 on the van) and some slight pixelization noticed but otherwise this is of good quality. There were no film artefacts noticed but there is a lot of clutter in every scene so it's possible that they were there but lost in the background.

    There are no subtitles on this single-layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Similar in style and content, this soundtrack sounds almost identical to the other discs in the series. Again this sports a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at 224 kilobits per second. If you haven't seen any of the other discs then this is very much front and centre with only the odd moment where the music cuts across the front channels to offer any sort of immersiveness to the soundtrack. For the most part this is dialogue driven and the music adds an undercurrent to support the visuals.

    Apart from the accents, the dialogue is easily discernable and the audio sync looked spot on.

    The music is accredited to John Lunn and is the same as the other discs in the series.

    There is no surround channel or subwoofer activity on this disc.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu Audio

    There is no Region 1 release of this disc at this time. There is a Region 2 release of all the episodes in a dual disc package, but at 22 pounds (almost $65) you can buy all 4 disc here for $40 at the moment. So, unless a couple of almost insignificant extras (and you love crappy Jewel cases) are your go, stick to the locally released version.

    Lock, Stock...And Four Stolen Hooves is the pilot movie of a short-lived series that had potential and never fulfilled it. This is as good as the series will get, and although the first 20 minutes almost had me falling asleep, the rest of it was entertaining, more so than some of the other episodes.

    A good video package this time around with few problems.

    A decent audio presentation that only rarely makes itself felt.

    There are no extras on this disc to speak of.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall