Ritchey's masterpiece of brawling and banter

Rating: Null/10 (17 March 2004)

Come on, guys, if a film offers bare-knuckle boxing, high-scale larceny and low-brow laughs (plus a pivotal scene in a topless bar), what's not to like? "Snatch" is classic Ritchie, from the scheming gangsters who are too smart for their own good, to the hapless low-lifes who clearly AREN'T too smart for their own good. Did somebody say "derivative?" Have some more popcorn, chief, we're trying to watch a movie here!
"Snatch" is the story of two amiable London low-lifes (Stratham and Graham) trying to make an honest living promoting illegal boxing. When they go to buy a new office trailer from a band of gypsies (led by Brad Pitt), they find themselves drawn into a violent and sardonically humorous turf war revolving around a stolen diamond that keeps getting stolen. Stratham and Graham are perfect as two smart guys who can't manage to do a single smart thing, and Brad Pitt is masterly as an inscrutable (and unintelligible) British Gypsie. Suffice it to say that fists and firearms are central to the conduct of the movie, and Ritchie leaves no blood unspilled.

Ritchie populates his movie with a gaggle of very original secondary characters chasing the stolen diamond. They've all let their greed get the better of themselves--and they realize it. The result is a lively running banter of insults interspersed with trademark Ritchie sight gags. Just as in "Lock Stock..." you can expect a multi-threaded plot-line--Ritchie seems honor-bound to make his viewers run to keep up. No matter, in the end everyone is given at least one chance to shoot, stab or steal from everyone else in the movie, so if you've lost track of who's doing what to whom. ..they all are!
Yes, many aspects of "Snatch" will be familiar to viewers of "Lock Stock..." Somehow this is construed as a negative by people who maybe ought to lighten up a little. For the rest of us who enjoyed "Lock Stock...", "Snatch" is Ritchey at the height of his powers, giving everyone and everything a swat with a bloody whoopie cushion.