R E V I E W S
Snatch (2000)
Starring: Benicio
Del Toro, Vinnie Jones, Brad Pitt, Rade Serbedjiza, Jason Stratham, Dennis Farina,
Alan Ford Studio: Screen Gems Review Posted: 1.25.01 Rating: 10/10
By Stephen.
"Protection from what? 'Zee Germans'?"
If there was one movie in 2000 that was visually entertaining, slick in editing, made great use of music, and mixed brutality with comedy, it has to be Guy Ritchie's Snatch. It all blended in perfectly. The two intertwining stories were at least interesting. If the humor in them hadn't been there, it wouldn't have been as interesting.
The first story is about Turkish (Jason Stratham), an unlicensed boxing promoter who is pulled into trouble when he becomes involved with Brick Top (Alan Ford), a big time criminal. Brick Top wants him to arrange a fight and fix it. Basically, Turkish has to go against the rules and cheat. He and his partner Tommy (Stephen Graham) go out to fiend a new boxer. In a small Gypsy village, they find One Punch' Mickey O'Neill (Brad Pitt), whose accent makes him hard to understand. Turkish sets him up to go down in round 4. When that fails, Turkish falls even deeper into trouble.
The second story follows a diamond theft going down. Franky Four Fingers (Benicio Del Toro), who can't resist gambling, steals the 84 karat stone in Antwerp. He then flies to London to buy a gun. Boris The Blade (Rade Serbedjiza) receives a tip from Franky's partner about the stone. Boris hires three thugs, of which Sol (Lennie Jones) is the leader, to capture Franky. To make matters worse, the 84 karat stone gets lost and the three thugs have 48 hours to get it back. Or else Brick Top has them (the thugs) cut into pieces and fed to pigs.
This leads Avi, the boss who was supposed to receive the stone, to fly from New York to England to search for it. Richie's inventive and stylish plane sequence is one of the coolest and hippest parts of this movie. Avi is assisted in his quest by his cousin, Doug The Head (Mike Reid) and Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones). "What should I call you? Bullet? Tony?" asks Avi. The only and most remotely correct answer Tony has to offer is, "You can call me Susan if it makes you happy."
As events twist and turn, the two situations blend into one with a chain reaction of events carrying on for each and every character. The last 30 or-so minutes are especially fun to watch because you see how everything makes sense and comes together. However, there is a slight complication. A few scenes just take a little bit too long, but it does not affect the enjoyment at all.
The structure of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Ritchie's first outing as a director, resembles the one of Snatch. It is also narrated by Jason Stratham. The narrative provides an extra juicy flavor of comedy blended in with violence and ridiculously strange situations. This is not to say that there are ridiculous situations, but compared to everyday life, they are quite strange.
Ritchie chose to end this movie with a definite conclusion. Instead of wondering what a character is going to do, he ends the movie with the audience knowing. And the ending is actually pretty slick.
The coolest thing thing about Snatch, however, is the way it was edited. Slo-mo's, turn the picture frame 180 degrees, and whatnot. And it makes use of hip'n cool songs that fit each individual scene perfectly.
There's probably a lot more about this movie that rocks, but I am just at a loss of words.
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