Violent but fun

Rating: 8/10 (3 September 2000)

Guy Ritchie is the movie world's equivalent of Blur's Damon Albarn, a rich kid pretending to be a Cockerney geezer. If you can get past the fact that Guy's obsession with gangsters involves a series of Minder-like creations, each with their own charming, often enigmatic moniker, then Snatch is a lot of fun.
As with Lock Stock, this is a complex tale of a heist gone wrong, a psychopathic crimelord (the terrifying Alan Ford, looking like Mike Myers as the dad in So, I Married an Axe Murderer), a couple of wide boys, and Brad Pitt as the incoheent Irish bare knuckle boxer, Mickey. There's about a dozen secondary characters, but let's leave them alone.
There are some fine moments in this densely plotted caper, although Dennis Farina looks like he's wandered in from another movie as Avi, the obligatory American used to sell the movie to the US market.
The other is Stateside thesp is Benicio Del Toro, a lot leaner after Leaving Las Vegas and far more coherent than in The Usual Suspects.
The soundtrack is great, the editing snappy and intriguing while Ritchie's dialogue ranged from the hilarious to the downright amateurish.
Vinnie Jones proves that he's no mere flash in the pan as Bullet tooth Tony, a far more rounded character than Sphinx in Gone in 60 Seconds. Oddly enough, he also gets a chance to cut a dog open in the hope of retrieving a vital plot device.
Yes, Snatch really is that subtle.
However, it's also a lot more likeable than GISS, with far more interesting characters and made for a lot less money.
And there's a chance to see Mike Reid giving a knockout performance as a faux Jewish diamond merchant. Why this man isn't employed more often on the big screen defies belief.