Slick,quick,but ultimately empty gangster opus

Rating: 6/10 (4 March 2008)

Upper middle-class mockney Guy Ritchie virtually remakes his previous hit LOCK,STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS,but this time with a larger budget,the addition of a Hollywood big-name (Brad Pitt),and even more flamboyant surface style than before.But this does not disguise the excessively complicated plot,the rather glib characterisations (not enhanced by jokey,Runyonese monikers),and the undoubted emptiness that lies beneath Ritchie's directorial excesses which threatened to get out of hand on LOCK STOCK;it certainly goes several miles overboard in SNATCH,which is to the film's considerable detriment.It is quite obvious that Ritchie is impersonating such American filmmakers as Scorcese and Tarantino (who himself has always been somewhat derivative of other directors,and judging by his recent efforts seems to be running out of the ideas he once had),though the gangster epics made by the aforementioned had far more style,depth,wit and conviction about them.Ritchie's closeted,wealthy background means that his essay in low-life criminality comes across as a caricatured,stylised fantasy,which admittedly is slick and very fast-paced,but lacking in the slightest bit of profundity.He may think his various directorial flourishes which he frequently employs here (and to a somewhat lesser extent in LOCK STOCK) are clever and the epitome of innovation,but they are actually anything but;merely designed to cover the obviousness of the plot,they rapidly become wearisomely flashy,and so resistibly self regarding as to become monstrous and indeed wholly pointless and unnecessary;subtler and quieter directorial techniques would've been much more credible and effective.
The cast involved (Alan Ford,Jason Statham,Lennie James,Dennis Farina among them) appearing as various English,American and Russian mobsters are mostly adequate but are merely reduced to a back-seat ensemble due to Ritchie's directorial self-gratification.As with LOCK STOCK,Vinnie Jones plays Vinnie Jones again,though with even less persuasion this time,the soundtrack includes a tune from Ritchie's future spouse Madonna (it's doubtful much money had to paid for the copyright there),and Pitt is rather foolish as a virtually unintelligible Irish Traveller who gets dragged in to this most complex of stories.The only female role of any note comes from Sorcha Cusack as Pitt's mother,and that consists of a mere sprinkling of exposition. SNATCH has it's merits but like it's somewhat better predecessor LOCK STOCK,mostly gives the undeniable impression that it is overwhelmingly pleased with it's own bravado,which when you look more closely is not as outstanding as it believes it is.And Ritchie's subsequent flops (SWEPT AWAY,REVOLVER) means he will have to tone down his narcissism very soon or his career may never recover.
RATING:5 and a half out of 10.