Seen it before - but it's ok

Rating: 9/10 (2 January 2001)

"Snatch" is almost exactly the same movie as "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". The similarities are so great that it's almost like watching the same film with a different cast. But it's ok, because this one is just as equally funny.
The two leads scheme to get their hands on fat wads of money, but as the plot thickens, they just want to get out of it alive. In "Lock, Stock..." there's a bunch of young, witty blokes who want to earn big money but in the end just want to live through it all. There's a criminal leader of a spectacularly brutal kind who just wants everything his way and has underlings that carry out his wishes to the fullest. In "Lock, Stock..." too. A couple of smart but completely worthless small-time crooks are put into the plot to add a pivotal but seemingly meaningless (and funny) part in the whole criss-cross of events. That's almost exactly like in "Lock, Stock...", with the notable difference that the crooks in the latter are seriously stupid. The plot is advanced by a series of coincidences and strange twists that accelerate into a blur of weird events and finally comes to a halt just when it can't get much more insane. That is also exactly like in "Lock, Stock...". And then there's Vinnie Jones, who is not merely exactly like his character in "Lock, Stock...", he _is_ that guy, he just has a different name and a bigger gun.
But, like I said, I don't really care. Both movies are very, very funny, and extremely entertaining to watch. It is excellently filmed and cut (or should I say "mixed"?), and some shots are just breathtaking. The details, like the dog swallowing the squeaky toy or "the fact that I have 'Desert Eagle point five-oh' written on mine", are just so insanely funny, it doesn't really matter that Ritchie seems a bit stuck in a loop. Why change a concept that works? But let's hope that he can do something about it to the next time, or it _will_ get repetitive.