"Well, where'd you lose him? He ain't a set of f*cking car keys, is he? And it ain't as if he's incon-f*cking-spicuous now, is it?" One of my all time favourite films.

Rating: 9/10 (11 October 2007)

Snatch starts in Antwerp where four guy's dressed as Jewish Rabai's gain entry & steal an 86 carat diamond from a building, one of the gang Franky Four Fingers (Benicio Del Toro) smuggles it into London where he plans to sell it to crooked jewellery dealer Doug 'The Head' Denovitz (Mike Reid), however his Russian mates double cross him & informs shady Russian gangster Boris 'The Blade' Yurinov (Rade Serbedzija) who hires two petty criminals Vincent (Robbie Gee) & Sol (Lennie James). Meanwhile boxing promoter Turkish (Jason Statham) & his mate Tommy (Stephen Graham) are in big trouble as they have let down a vicious crime boss named Brick Top (Alan Ford), throw in some Irish pikey's, unlicensed boxing matches, dead bodies, betting shop hold ups & add hard as nails Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones) hired to sort everything out as everyone's problems become connected...
This British American co-production was written & directed by Madonna's other half Guy Ritchie & I'll say it straight away, Snatch is one of my favourite films of all time, period. I must admit after watching it again last night I wasn't looking forward to looking it up on the IMDb for fear of a horribly low score & lots of complaints from people about not understanding or getting it, particularly Americans, so imagine my surprise & delight when I discovered that Snatch is in fact in the IMDb's Top 250 films list (currently #183 but this will change sooner or later) & it certainly isn't a film which I thought would come into most people's heads when talking about the best 200 odd films ever made so I guess it's a testament to just how good Snatch is in that after 7 years from it's original release it still holds a place in the IMDb's Top 250 films of all time. A place, I might add, that I think it fully deserves. 'Who took the jam outta your doughnut?', 'You took the f*cking jam outta my doughnut!'. The script by Ritchie is quite simply the funniest thing ever put to film, I have seen Snatch several times & I still p*ss myself laughing at some of the one-liners, sarcastic jokes, humour, twists, character's & events. Snatch has more quotable lines of dialogue in it than any other film I've seen, I myself have used the 'how did you lose it, it's hardly a set of f*cking car keys' line so many times & never miss an opportunity to use it! The whole film maybe gets a little bit too silly at the end but who cares when it's this clever, this fun, this hilarious & this entertaining? 'What's in the car?', 'Seats and a steering wheel'. I'm sorry, I just love the one-liners in this & can just quote them all day long & not get bored. I love Snatch, I thinks it is absolutely brilliant in every single way from the character's to the clever plot which keeps you on your toes to the hilariously funny dialogue. Snatch is one of the few films about which I simply can't find anything negative to say at all, the absolutely perfect film to watch with some mates on DVD.
Director Ritchie pulls out all the stop with an incredibly stylish & fast moving comedy crime thriller, the editing, the camera moves & the dull colour schemes which sum up the British weather perfectly just work like a dream in every respect. There's not much graphic violence although there's loads of profanity & bad language. There's plenty of clever visual gags as well as the funny one-liners & Snatch is just great to both listen to & watch. 'There are two types of balls. There are big brave balls & there are little mincey faggot balls.'
With a modest sounding budget of about $10,000,000, well by Hollywood standards it's modest, Snatch has a perfect gloomy British look to it & there's some nice location shooting in & around London. The acting is brilliant from a great cast, everyone plays their roles straight & it's just so funny.
Snatch is just about the perfect film, still being in the IMDb Top 250 films is by no means a guarantee of quality but it proves it has legs across a broad range of people most of who I'm pleased to discover get it & love it as much as I do. Guy Ritchie will never make another film as good as Snatch (just look at his next full feature film Swept Away (2002) staring his wife Madonna) & you will never see as good a comedy crime thriller as Snatch, that I promise you.