A review by Mike Shea Movie Rating: ( * * * * · ) DVD Rating: ( * * * · · )
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I am a big fan of movies generally out of the mainstream. I am really beginning to be a fan of any movie done for under 10 million and outside of the normal Hollywood drivel we normally get. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is exactly what I like. We get a twisted plot that has more characters than a Kurosawa movie, a hip soundtrack that lends itself perfectly to the surrounding scene and a wildly changing camera style that proves once again that slow motion is king. This movie takes that concept one step further by proving that anything other than normal 24 frame a second takes can make anything cooler. The main charm from this movie comes in the English setting, much like Trainspotting, Waking Ned Divine and Full Monty had. The scene at the simoan pub where subtitles are used at an almost Airplane level humor is a perfect example of this charm. Rule two, trendy use of subtitles can make anything cooler (see Go as well). The story is very fast and introduces a lot of characters at once, so it is difficult to get one time around. Still, the movie holds its own as a foreign crime comedy. The DVD has a pretty well used Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack that makes the surrealistic clips seem even more dreamlike (see the pothead girl with the WW2 machine gun). It also has a somewhat blurry but 16x9 enhanced video transfer. Unfortunately there are no other extras with this one. Overall, a very excellent film that proves once again that the outskirts of the film industry are far more interesting than the mainstream.
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