Snatch (2000)

Rating: 8/10 (3 February 2020)

Regarded by many to be writer and director Guy Ritchie's magnum opus; Snatch serves as the follow-up to his smash-hit, cult-classic, feature-length debut Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels with more of the same. The film is an all-encompassing showreel of what makes a Guy Ritchie film, a Guy Ritchie film, with its kinetic directing and editing styles, witty and sharp dialogue, gratuitous violence, and ensemble cast of interconnected characters. You can't help but feel watching Ritchie's films, Snatch especially, that he was perhaps too inspired by the works of Quentin Tarantino, and his own attempt to recapture Pulp Fiction in a British setting falls a bit flat. As seems to be a recurring theme of Ritchie's films, the audience and critic perceptions are practically polar opposites, and I can understand why. While I think Snatch has some absolutely outstanding elements, including fantastic and memorable characters and performances, as well as being infinitely quotable and rewatchable, I do think its components are more powerful than the sum of its parts. While the film is far from perfect, it does succeed in achieving what it set out to do. A rollicking good time with plenty of thrills and laughs, that I can already see myself wanting to revisit.