Ah ah ah ah, ah ah ah ah, eh eh, eh eh, cuba cuba cuba cuba...

Rating: 9/10 (25 February 2006)

STAR RATING: ***** The Works **** Just Misses the Mark *** That Little Bit In Between ** Lagging Behind * The Pits
Guy Ritchie's follow-up to Lock, Stock opens with Turkish (Jason Statham) and Tommy (Stephen Graham) two unlicensed boxing promoters getting roped into rigging a bare-knuckle fight with feared local kingpin Brick Top (Alan Ford.) They find a contender in the shape of loose-cannon Irish gypsy One Punch Mickey O' Neill (Brad Pitt) who doesn't play up to his part of the deal, setting off a violent chain of events. Juxtaposed with this story is one of a diamond thief and gambling addict called Frankie Four Fingers (Bencio Del Toro) who has gone missing in London. Interested in finding him is American head honcho Avi (Dennis Farina) who enlists the help of feared local goon Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones) a hard-man with an inexplicable love of Madonna's hit single Starlight. These are just some of the crazy characters that fall into this crazy equation.
I went out my way to see Lock, Stock when it was released a few years earlier, so why I've waited this long to finally see Snatch for the first time I don't know but now I have, as well as seeing the other non Ritchie Brit gangster flick Layer Cake a few years ago. Having seen it, I'm surprised actually how this ended up with an 18 and Layer Cake was awarded a 15, despite the violence actually being considerably worse in that film. Sure, there is a scene where a guy blows his brains out and we see a load of blood splatter on the wall, but to a sensitive 15 year old, that could just be explained as a tin of paint exploding, as opposed to the actual blood laden shootings we do see in Layer Cake. There's also the big hand chopping scene I'd been built up to in this film but that turned out to be a big non event.
As for the actual quality of the film itself, we do have a very impressive gangster film on our hands here, with very intricate characters in a very intricate story. A lot of Brit gangster films get accused of trying to copy American films like Goodfellas or the Godfather movies, but Pitt himself wanted a role in this. As well as him, the film has a whole colourful cast of recognizable faces.
Despite all the swearing and violence going on, the film somehow manages to maintain a very light-hearted tone through-out, with some very funny characters in the shape of the incompetent black yardies (and their dog!) It's a slick, classy gangster movie (and, in case you can't tell, I liked the song at the end!) ****