Snatch
Director: Guy Ritchie
As soon as I saw a poster advertising a movie made by the director of Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, I knew that I had to see it. Snatch, in a nutshell, is similar in style to Lock, Stock, but has been made with a bigger budget, yet still retains that intensity and the characterisation that made the pervious movie so popular. Comparing it to Lock, Stock, I would have to say that it was not as good, but Ritchie has a style that is unique and as such makes a movie entertaining.
Snatch is once again set in the East End of London, and once again involves the London underworld, though this time its focus is far wider, stretching to Antwerp and New York, and involves characters from a wider range of groups, from professional diamond thieves, gypsies, and, as can be expected, thugs. The names are not as good as they were in Lock, Stock, and seem to be a little forced, and the characters are not as well developed. Another big difference is that Lock, Stock relied very much on the unavailability of guns in England, whereas this is not the case in Snatch.
Like Lock, Stock, there are a number of plots which run together, though not as many. Snatch is about some diamond thieves who steal a heap of diamonds from Antwerp, and on the way to New York, sell the smaller stones in London. One of the thieves decides that he wants to keep the big diamond, and arranges with Boris ‘The Blade’ to organise that the seller is robbed and the diamond stolen. As such Boris contacts some small time thugs to rob the courier as he is making a small bet for him (the courier is named Frankie Four Fingers because his habit of making bets that he cannot pay).
Jason Stratham, from Lock, Stock, plays a small time unlicensed boxing organiser named Turkish (because that was the plane that his parents met on, after it crashed) and after getting ripped off by some gypsies, loses his prize boxer and has to convince the underworld kingpin, Brick-Top, to allow him to change fighters. The fighter he chooses is Mickey O’Reilly (Brad Pitt, who does an outstanding job in this film), but since Mickey is a gypsy, he is unpredictable.
I won’t go much further into the movie since it is one that the less one knows about it, the better. Snatch does not have as many one liners as does Lock, Stock, though Vinnie Jones does return, but this time as a thug named Bullet Tooth Tony. What makes this movie funny though are the incidents that the characters get themselves into. Guy Ritchie sticks with his unique style, though the yellowish tinge that was prevalent through Lock, Stock does not exist in this film. Oh, and watch out for the dog.
David Sarkies
