Lock, Stock...-And 200 Smoking Kalashnikovs/And a Fist Full of Jack & Jills (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	99:03 (Case: 98)
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	Alpha-Transparent
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 final disc for review in the short-lived TV series of Lock Stock ... Although these are episodes 2 and 3, the discs have been reviewed slightly out of order. One anomaly in these two episodes is that the second one, ..and a Fistful of Jack and Jill's is the only one in the series not to feature Ralph Brown and Christopher Adamson as Miami Vice and Three Feet. Instead, there were other characters introduced; Larry Harmless (Bradley Walsh), Ali Gaddafi (Omid Dajlili), Mehmet Gaddafi (Robert Atiko) and the Caliph (Josef Accerelli) which added some much-needed variety to the storyline. The stories themselves follow a predictable path; some scam is initiated and our four heroes - Lee, Jamie, Bacon and Moon (Daniel Caltagirone, Scott Maslen, Shaun Parkes and Del Synott) - find themselves right up to their necks in it, and things always go bad...but turn out okay.

Lock, Stock... and 200 Smoking Kalashnikovs

    There's a gang war breaking out on Miami's turf and he knows nothing about it which isn't making his disposition any better. Determined to get to the bottom of things and stop people getting knocked off left, right and centre he sends out Three Feet to put the fear into a newcomer who has just opened up a nightclub. In the meantime, an old friend of the boys, Robbie Rossi (Anthony Barclay) trying to flog a few suits and getting the boys to back him with some cash. Unfortunately, Robbie's on more than just a selling spree and is running the old Limehouse Lag and the boys are in the middle of it. Miami, on the other hand, is busy buying up big on guns and ammo preparing to put an end to the turf war.

Lock, Stock... and a Fist Full of Jack and Jill's

    The Dutchies are back. Jaap (Martin Freeman), this time with his brother Jordi (Nikolaj Coster Waldau), have some pills to sell the lads. The lads agree to help them ship their Vigara (that's not a misspelling, either) for a share of the profits and a consignment of their own. Meanwhile, one of the local hard men, Larry Harmless finds himself in deep schtuck with a bunch of Spaniards over some faulty workmanship that's killed a few dozen punters. To make amends he's got to come up with 1 million pounds cash, or his alternative is his balls hanging from his chin. Getting the cash into the country is easy (inside the lining of an antique car) but things go awry when the dopey sod he sends to buy the car misses out to some Lord. Planning to use a well-known crim to emulate a toff, he 'consummates' the deal with the crim by offering him a night of pleasure at his wife's brothel, giving him one of the boy's dodgy pills, but he dies inflagrante delicto. Now the boys are for it, unless they can nick the car back and avoid the Gadaffi brothers who are also after them for a fatality or two.

    Although quite entertaining, these two episodes are not the best of the bunch and are fairly predictable. Jack and Jills does have some moments but you'd need to be a fan to sit through more than a couple back to back.

Video

    This is another excellent presentation with just the right amount of grain to give it that 'toughened' look. Nothing in either episode should cause any complaints and another fine transfer is the order of the day.

    As with the other 3 discs in this series, the transfer is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness is again good with only very minor edge enhancement noticed. Shadow detail is mostly in the good to excellent range with lots of background detail in sharp focus throughout. Grain again can be seen but actually adds to the grittiness of the show and isn't an issue. Low level noise was not noted.

    The colours are typical for the show, ranging from very natural to totally unnatural. There were no real problems here except for some very minor green tinges that can be seen on the outlines during heavy sepia shots.

    Again, apart from some very minor problems, this is another excellent transfer in regards to film and video artefacts. Minor pixelization was noted throughout, with particular examples at 26:10 in Smoking and at 0:19 in Fistful. It was relatively minor for the most part but if you look for it, it's there. Aliasing at 28:45 is the only other real blemish in Smoking. Otherwise, this is another superb transfer. Film artefacts again either were totally missing or lost in the clutter of the background and didn't rate a mention.

    There are no subtitles on this single sided disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    As with the other three discs in this series, this has a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at a bitrate of 224 kilobits per second. It is perfectly adequate for what is being shown although the best parts still remain the opening credits and the menu. There is some nice separation across the fronts at times, but otherwise this is mainly going to make you concentrate on the dialogue from the centre speaker.

    This is another case of if you can understand the dialogue and some of the accents then you won't have an issue. Dialogue is clear (if sometimes hard to decipher) and syncing isn't an issue.

    Approximately the same music as on all the other discs is present, with some slight variations at best. The music is credited to John Lunn.

    There was no surround nor subwoofer activity noted on this disc.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu Audio

    There is no R1 release of this disc at this time, although a boxed set R2 is available with a couple of cheesy extras. Unless you like the idea of paying for a cardboard box, jewelled casing and a couple of short extras, stick with the R4 which at current prices is a bargain.

    Episodes 2 and 3 respectively of the series, these aren't bad and are worth adding to the collection if you have the rest. If you want something different then this is definitely a series (albeit a short series) worth getting hold of.

    Another crisp video presentation with few problems. The picture does look a little on the grainy side at times but then that's the look they obviously wanted.

    Adequate audio but no subtitles for those hard-to-understand moments. Decent without being memorable.

    No extras to speak of.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall