Snatch (2000)-"R"

Run Time:104 minutes

3 stars out of 4

Snatch is a very fast-paced film, and rather intense, and is similar to the director's (Guy Ritchie) previous British crime movie, Lock, Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels, even with some of the same actors (i.e. Alan Ford, Vinnie Jones, etc.), but as different characters. The opening credits and the first holdup scene keep you hyped-up and ready for action, while the intense soundtrack immensely helps the fighting scenes in excitement. The main characters are two friends/partners-in-crime, Turkish (Jason Statham) and Tommy (Stephen Graham), unlicensed boxing promoters who are sucked into the service of the downright nasty crimelord, Brick Top (Alan Ford). Turkish and Tommy end up switching fighters from Gorgeous George (Adam Fogerty) to the pikey (gypsie trash) bare-knuckle fighter, One-Punch Mickey O'Neil (Brad Pitt). Along the way the plot gets intertwined with the theft of a 84-karat diamond by Frankie Four-Fingers (Benicio Del Toro) that's to be delivered to Cousin Avi, an American Jew, via the unlucky and somewhat incompetent black British trio of Tyrone (Ade), Vinny (Robbie Gee), and Sol (Lennie James). I basically loved the movie, but I had a major problem with it: I couldn't understand what was being said some of the time. This of course impaired my understanding of the plot, and coupled with the facts that there were a lot of similar characters and there was an extremely fast-moving storyline, I was pressed to understand what exactly was going on, and it kind of took away from the movie-going experience. Nevertheless, the humor is quick, the characters are fantastic, and the feeling of reality in the film is definitely strong. This is a great film for fans of Guy Ritchie or anyone else who likes dirty-mouthed British gangsters.