Not as good as 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'

Rating: 8/10 (13 September 2004)

'Snatch' has a very entertaining beginning and a very entertaining end. It is too bad that the middle part plays slows, is less funny and more predictable. After Guy Ritchie's 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels', an exercise in style with a funny crime story, I was expecting a lot. In a way 'Snatch' delivers. Again we have an excellent exercise in style and the crime story is pretty funny. But when you really think about it we have the same again. The reason that the middle part from 'Snatch' is not that good is probably because we have seen it in a movie too close to this one. Fortunately the end takes the movie to a higher level again.
We start with Turkish (Jason Statham), who is also the narrator, and Tommy (Stephen Graham). Turkish explains us that he does not know much about diamonds and then the movie is a big flashback. We see how Franky Four Fingers (Benicio Del Toro) and three partners steal a big diamond in Antwerp and how a lot of people want that diamond. We also see how Turkish and Tommy arrange some illegal boxing matches with a guy named Brick Top (Alan Ford). Brick Top delivers one fighter, Turkish and Tommy the other named Gorgeous George (Adam Fogerty). Unfortunately Gorgeous George is wounded when Tommy and George try to buy a caravan from gypsies, including Mickey (Brad Pitt). These are two beginnings of separate stories that will come together near the end.
How that happens is something you should see for yourself but it involves Mickey who will be the replacement of Gorgeous George but fails doing what he should do. It also involves Doug the Head (Mike Reid) who knows how to sell stolen diamonds, Avi (Dennis Farina) who is interested in the diamond as is Boris the Blade (Rade Serbedzija). We also meet Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones) who helps Avi to get back the diamond. There are more characters but it would make it more confusing if I would mention them.
The story, although it is too much like 'Barrels', is still one of the pleasures here. A lot of characters are introduced and for some reason Ritchie is able to make you understand who knows who and why. Reading the connections it is hard to remember them but when it is visualized by a gifted director you will remember. It is a good thing that not everything comes together because that is the way it should be; coincidence has a big part, like we saw in 'Pulp Fiction'.
I mention 'Pulp Fiction' because there are other connections. The movie is told not chronological but with constant flashbacks and flash-forwards and there is a moment where you can say: 'This is where we came in.' Like in 'Pulp Fiction' the pieces fall into place after the scenes, during them we are still guessing a bit. Another connection is the dialogue. Not that the speaking style is really the same, but here the dialogue is almost as important as it was in 'Pulp Fiction'. Because it is clearly different from the 'Pulp'-language you can admire it on its own level.
For style, visual and in dialogue, for some nice black British humor, for very interesting storytelling, see 'Snatch' but start with 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'.