Review of Snatch (2000) by Colginator — 02 Aug 2015

Snatch is Guy Ritchie's second feature film and a spiritual successor to his first film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. It has a similar style, setting and mostly the same cast from that film. With some filmmakers this could risk being repetitive and failing to live up to a previous success. But fortunately Ritchie seems to improve upon what he did in Lock, Stock in every way remaining loyal in style whilst creating a wholly original and hilarious comedy.

Its narrative is similar to something like Pulp Fiction, since there's no single plot that the film follows. Instead it follows many insane characters as they navigate the world of London crime and watch as their stories collide in to each other (both literally and metaphorically) as they try to do every crime from rigging boxing matches to stealing a 86 carat diamond.

And seeing these characters interactions is definitely the best part of the film. Watching their over the top personalities collide is like watching a dark British version of old Looney Tune cartoons. Even if this film had no plot at all, it could probably be sold on these insane characters alone. To match their larger than life personalities, most of the characters will also have weird but memorable names including Borris the Blade (Rade Serbedzija) a Russian gun dealer with the ability to dodge bullets and Brick Top (Alan Ford) a British gangster who rigged boxing matches and has an aggressive streak, chopping up any person who crosses him in to pieces and feeding them to pigs.

But no character in the film is quite as bizarrely enjoyable as Mickey O'Neil (Brad Pitt). He's a Irish Gypsy traveller who is a bare boxing champion with the ability to knock his opponents out in one punch. He's given an Irish accent that even an Irish man would find hard to follow at points, largely in response to criticisms in the first film that many of the London accents could be hard to follow for American audiences. So this character was made so both the audience and other characters couldn't understand him. And he uses this to his advantage, setting up unfair deals and swindling all the English men out of their pockets.

Even beyond the main characters, every side character are also very enjoyable. They seem to have a Coens Brother kind of charm to them when even if they were only on screen for 30 seconds, they kept you laughing so much in that short time that you'll still be able to leave the film thinking of them. Either because of the short dialogue having a distinct British charm to them or just because of great casting (like having a slow moving fat man as the getaway driver for a heist) that just ensures the characters all leave a lasting impression.

Another great part about the comedy in this film is Ritchie is one of the few directors to still use the visual medium effectively to bring the laughs in his comedies. As smart and quotable as the dialogue in the film is ("Why do they call him the bullet-dodger?" "Cause he dodges bullets") the films visuals are where Ritchie real skill takes over. The use of clever editing tricks like freeze framing on a stupid face or fast editing taking you off guard in a split second allows this film to have its own distinct mark on you.

Out of all of his films so far this is definitely Ritchie's career high point. Its impressive soundtrack, instantly quotable dialogue and memorable visuals are both very enjoyable and easily re-watchable. It's quite easily one of my favourite comedies to come out in years.