Snatch (2000)

Directed by Guy Ritchie. Starring Jason Statham, Stephen Graham, Robbie Gee, Lennie James, Alan Ford, Brad Pitt, Dennis Farina, Ade, Rade Šerbedžija, Vinnie Jones, Mike Reid, Benicio Del Toro, Adam Fogerty, Sorcha Cusack, Andy Beckwith, Jason Flemyng, Ewen Bremner. [R]

“Second verse same as the first” for Ritchie’s sophomore directorial effort, or so lots of critics accused upon its release. And while the visual style, dark and semi-ironic humor, multi-narrative editing tricks, and gritty motifs traversing the London underworld will certainly be very familiar to fans of his debut (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), it’s more sharply self-aware, contains even more kinetic energy, and doesn’t take as long to start sorting itself out. Interlocking plot parts involve a stolen 86-carat diamond, illegal boxing matches, Irish gypsies, botched robberies, a cavalcade of small-time crooks and bruisers, and an especially squeaky dog. Well-cast with eccentrics acting tough and tough guys being eccentric; Pitt is quite amusing as a pikey with such a garbled accent that his dialogue is unintelligible more often than not (designed, it seems, as a kiss-off from Ritchie to those who complained that the slang-heavy vernacular from Lock Stock was too often incomprehensible to “regular folk”). Soundtrack includes alt-scene classics from the Specials and the Stranglers, plus a cheeky usage of pop song “Lucky Star” from Ritchie’s then-girlfriend Madonna. For an interesting twist on the prevailing criticism that crime pictures were becoming too gruesomely violent in the 80s and 90s, notice how nearly all of the violence in this film (except for the boxing matches) takes place beyond the edges of the camera frame.

79/100