Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels – Locked ‘N Loaded (1999) | DVD Review

Just to be sure no one’s forgotten about our good friend Guy Ritchie, Universal has re-released Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels under the guise of an Unrated Director’s Cut special edition DVD.

When a group of buddies gets in over their head wth a local mob boss, every option is on the table to repay a huge debt before everyone starts losing fingers and whatever comes after that…

This 1998 crime flick signalled the beginning of British director Guy Ritchie’s career. Stylistically, Lock, Stock is pure guerilla filmmaking. With witty dialogue and reckless abandon, it features a maze of a plot which earned Ritchie an Edgar award from the Mystery Writers Of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay in 2000. Essentially Lock, Stock is notable for two reasons. 1) the film was a critical success at a time when every ensemble picture with criminal undertones was being scrutinized in comparison to the Tarantino Big Two and 2), it starred a cast of mostly unknowns who had never been seen before by North American audiences. The film came out four years after Pulp Fiction (1994) and six years after Reservoir Dogs (1992). While those two films spawned a score of imitators both here and abroad, none really had the kind of adoration that was awarded Lock, Stock. The film introduced star Jason Statham (Transporter 1 & 2, Crank) to the film going public, and while Statham’s career still remains wedged for the most part within the somewhat niche B-action market, his star is continually rising. The film also handed a new career to former British football player Vinnie Jones, who’s since gone on to a wide range of supporting roles and starred most recently as Juggernaut in the third installment of the X-Men franchise. Ritchie’s own career has stumbled since his well-received sophomore effort, Snatch, in 2000. Devoting for a time his filmmaking talents to advance the ambitions of his famous wife, he tried (and failed) to rebound with the heist film Revolver. It remains to be seen whether he’ll be able to match the enduring appeal of his debut feature.

Touted as having an additional 12 minutes of never before seen footage, this special edition DVD is more of a companion piece to the copy of Lock, Stock you already own. In terms of extras, the DVD comes with an eleven minute crash course featurette on the film’s cinematography called One Smoking Camera. There’s also a useless two minute montage of all of the film’s expletives, and that’s it. I assume the extras here are spare because most of what you would expect was on the previous DVD version of Lock, Stock (such as a Production Featurette, Cast and Crew Biographies, Theatrical Trailers and a guide to the film’s slang terminology).

If you already own a DVD copy of Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, then there’s not much reason to shell out for the special edition. If you don’t own a copy, then this Unrated Director’s Cut is probably the one to get, although if you dig extras, you’d probably be more satisfied with the previous release.

Movie rating – 3.5

Disc Rating – 2