 Tagline: Now you see it, now you don't! Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers, and supposedly Jewish jewelers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond. Guy Ritchie, writer/director of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, delivers another awe-inspiring directorial masterpiece, Snatch - an edgy and hilarious film about a diamond heist gone wrong, a colorful Irish gypsy-turned-prize fighter...and a very temperamental dog. In the heart of gangland, two novice unlicensed boxing promoters, Turkish (Jason Statham) and Tommy (Stephen Graham), get roped into organizing a rigged bare-knuckle fight with local kingpin/villain and fellow boxing promoter Brick Top (Alan Ford). But all goes wrong when wildcard Irish gypsy boxer One Punch Mickey O'Neil (Brad Pitt) starts playing by his own rules, and the duo find themselves heading for a whole lot of trouble. Meanwhile, Franky Four Fingers (Benicio Del Toro) and his stolen 86-carat diamond have gone missing in London. Head honcho Avi (Dennis Farina) hires local legend Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones) to find them, launching everyone into a spiral of double-crossing vendettas and events, most of them illegal. Storyline: Turkish and his close friend/accomplice Tommy get pulled into the world of match fixing by the notorious Brick Top. Things get complicated when the boxer they had lined up gets badly beaten by Pitt, a 'pikey' ( slang for an Irish Gypsy)- who comes into the equation after Turkish, an unlicensed boxing promoter wants to buy a caravan off the Irish Gypsies. They then try to convince Pitt not only to fight for them, but to lose for them too. Whilst all this is going on, a huge diamond heist takes place, and a fistful of motley characters enter the story, including 'Cousin Avi', 'Boris The Blade', 'Franky Four Fingers' and 'Bullet Tooth Tony'. Things go from bad to worse as it all becomes about the money, the guns, and the damned dog! Written by Filmtwob Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, December 1, 2009 -- It's just that. Just a story. Snatch is shorthand for "convoluted plot, unintelligible dialects, quirky styling, superficially gratifying, and wildly entertaining filmmaking." Indeed, Guy Ritchie's 2000 follow-up to the fan-favorite Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels follows a familiar formula, delivering a picture that's not exactly coherent but not particularly difficult to follow on a base level. Fortunately, there's little to Snatch beyond the surface, making it easy to digest despite the many obstacles that keep it from being more readily accessible in a traditional narrative style. Snatch interconnects two major plot lines, neither of which are of any moral, spiritual, emotional, or otherwise philosophically important structure or value; instead, the film cares only about the visceral aspects of the violent, corrupt, and complex world it weaves, a world where anything goes, a tone that's reflected in Ritchie's haphazard and highly kinetic but wonderfully effective visual approach to the material. Snatch follows two stories that interconnect by film's end: that of a stolen diamond and a series of fixed boxing matches gone awry. The former begins with the theft of a flawless and particularly large 86-carat gem by the skilled Frankie "Four Fingers" (Benicio del Toro, The Way of the Gun), and he and the diamond become the object of desire by a broad spectrum of sleazy and unscrupulous individuals: American Avi Denovitz (Dennis Farina), hit man Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinne Jones), Doug the Head (Mike Reid), Boris the Blade (Rade Šerbedžija), and assorted low-level goons. Meanwhile, illegal boxing promoter Brick Top (Alan Ford) has a rigged fight lined up, but when his underling Turkish (Jason Statham, Crank) sends Tommy (Stephen Graham) and boxer Gorgeous George (Adam Fogerty) to secure him a new camper from a group of "pikeys," George is severely injured in a fight with Mickey O'Neil (Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), leaving Turkish and Tommy with no choice but to ask Mickey to enter the ring as George's replacement. No matter the ins-and-puts of the plot; Snatch is more about the experience than the story, more about understanding the hows rather than the whys. Few films can succeed on style alone, and Snatch seems to go out of its way to prove itself the exception to that rule. Though its narrative isn't impossible to follow, it's moderately difficult for a myriad of reasons: borderline unintelligible accents, a plethora of main characters, varied motivations, interconnecting stories and fates, and a highly-charged and unorthodox visual style. All told, Snatch seems the epitome of a film destined to collapse under its own weight and convoluted collection of elements, but Director Guy Ritchie handles the entire spectrum of cinematic no-nos with tongue seemingly planted in-cheek, lending to the film a none-too-serious tone despite its dark and violent elements surrounding England's seediest Criminal underbellies and enterprises. Indeed, Snatch -- and Ritchie's other films -- is of its own personal style, a genre of its own, a film that can only be imitated but not duplicated, for few films enjoy such a mind-bendingly unique approach as this. Snatch is a product of style, and as such, elements other than story prove more valuable to the experience, and the movie benefits greatly from its collection of talent found on either side of the camera. Guy Ritchie's direction is fluid, an organic ensemble of elements that give the film a life of its own, and it's complimented by a frenetic and terribly loud soundtrack that jumps into the mix and injects an additional jolt of energy into the experience. Together, the film's look and sound define the high energy concept, and both help in equal parts to energize a picture that otherwise suffers from the aforementioned issues that would seem to spell certain doom for a picture that dared take itself even the least bit more serious than Snatch. On the other side of the lens, Snatch's entire cast turn in memorable performances within the context of the film. The accents are thick but the dialogue is witty, and each character seems fully immersed in the film's helter-skelter style. Brad Pitt is particularly engaging as the "pikey" fighter Mickey O'Neil who encapsulates the entire experience, speaking with a particularly thick accent that even the other characters in the film have a hard time discerning, but he also makes for the most complex character that suffers greatly but also reaps a particularly handsome reward. Snatch also enjoys wonderful performances from a combination of name stars (Jason Statham, Benicio del Toro) and plenty of character actors at the top of their craft (Dennis Farina, Alan Ford). With every cockeyed element coming together for a somewhat indecipherable but altogether entertaining film with plenty of replay value, Snatch is not only a creature of its own definition but a film unique in most every regard, a wonderful change of pace in a sea of mediocrity and copycat pictures. Director Guy Ritchie lends to the film just the right pace and tone to allow it to overcome a plethora of otherwise damaging elements, and the ensemble cast to a man delivers a collection of extraordinary performances. Sony's Blu-ray release of this modern classic does the film justice. Boasting a strong video transfer within the confines of the film's intentionally muted tone, a solid lossless soundtrack, and a few good extras, Snatch comes strongly recommended. Cast Notes: Benicio Del Toro (Franky Four Fingers), Dennis Farina (Cousin Avi), Vinnie Jones (Bullet-Tooth Tony), Brad Pitt (Mickey O'Neil), Rade Serbedzija (Boris the Blade [as Rade Sherbedgia]), Jason Statham (Turkish), Alan Ford (Brick Top), Mike Reid (Doug the Head), Robbie Gee (Vinny), Lennie James (Sol), Ewen Bremner (Mullet), Jason Flemyng (Darren), Ade (Tyrone), William Beck (Neil), Andy Beckwith (Errol). IMDb Rating (05/14/15): 8.3/10 from 519,891 users Top 250: #92 IMDb Rating (09/07/14): 8.3/10 from 462,596 users Top 250: #92 IMDb Rating (10/15/07): 8.0/10 from 91,341 users Top 250: #183 IMDb Rating (07/04/01): 8.1/10 from 6,986 users Top 250: #141
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
