'Snatch' is delicious...in more ways than one

Rating: Null/10 (29 January 2001)

"Snatch" gave me my fix. I've read or heard some people say that they didn't like this because it had too many similarities to Ritchie's previous film "LS2SB," and they are right. Double-crosses, almost need subtitles accents, Vinnie Jones playing a muscle for hire, and instead of two funny bumbling crooks like "LS2SB," we have three absolutely hysterical bumbling crooks here, and many more that I haven't mentioned. Why don't I mention them? Because it doesn't matter because "Snatch" is one hell of a flick. I can't say which is better. "Lock, Stock..." had a very good premise and also had heart in the right places (notably the father-son relationships between some of the characters), and also had a lot of laughs. "Snatch" cuts right to the teeth with biting dark comedy and great performances by the players involved. The great Benicio Del Toro does what he can with relatively small screen time. Jason Statham has grown since "Lock, Stock...", probably because Ritchie gave him a bigger role as Turkish. And you gotta love the Yanks of the film: Dennis Farina and Brad Pitt. With his demanding attitude and sharp lines, Farina shells out one of his best performances of his career. Pitt is like a limey Tyler Durden without the darkness and more humorous spunk. I think Ritchie's plan to have Pitt speak that dialect was because not one American could understand what the characters said in "Lock, Stock..." (even I had to use closed captioning a couple times). So, he gets an American actor who speaks something no one understood to hilarious effect. But, the top performance here goes to Alan Ford. The narrator of "Lock, Stock..." creates a frightening yet funny character in Brick Top. He says most of the films best lines and has probably the best facial expressions in the film (most likely helped by those thick-rimmed glasses).
All in all, this was a great film. And while I will always follow Ritchie in his career, I think he should put the crime genre away for at least a few films. He is capable of so much more, and it's evident in his stylish direction and his ear for sharp dialogue. What I say to him is good luck, and don't put Madonna in ANY of your films. Maybe sing on the soundtrack, but not act. She's not as British as she pretends to be.