Saturday Movies: Snatch. (2000)

Guy Ritchie churns out hits like the Sherlock Holmes movies, but prior to that he created a little hit, Snatch.It stars the likes of Brad Pitt and Jason Statham among many others, and has enough twist to keep you following along. It also unknowingly stuck with me longer than I expected it to. On top of that it weaves in things about the characters that grows your attachment to them without you even realizing it.

Summary: When something goes wrong, Turkish and Tommy find they have lost a prized boxer they were going to fight for Cousin Avi, so they could lose and he could win some money. Now they are trying to convince the pikey who beat their boxer, Mickey, to take his place and lose. He may be a little prideful and defensive of the people they offended he belongs to actually lose the fight. There is also a diamond on the lose that all these people will end up looking for. Franky Four Finger sort of messes up the heist and now an assortment of characters are on the hunt for it resulting in violent chaos.


Acting: There is some good acting, but honestly maybe one too many characters. It is a little hazy and a bit difficult to keep up with every angle the chase for the diamond is coming in from. Jason Statham as Turkish and his sidekick Tommy are the more prominent characters yet because their names don't carry as much weight they are put behind Brad Pitt, who has a much smaller role. Brad Pitt as Mickey is the highlight of the movie though. He really does seem to have the most depth and the most to really lose. I also thought of the scenes featuring him were some of the most dramatic and worth another watch. Bullet Tooth Toney was the other character, portrayed by Vinnie Jones, that also intrigued me. He seemed scary and stood out.

Filming: The filming is very Guy Ritchie style. It's fast pace, it has catchy music, and the technique is used to convey the impact of the movement of the characters. This is also a very masculine way to convey the movie too. I think it works well since the guys watching this will be the huge audience of the movie. The movie has a lot of color, but to keep in line with the grittiness of the movie it does keep in line with that vibe.

Plot: The plot is a little difficult to sum up and shifts a lot. I think if they had focused on the boxer aspect I would have enjoyed the movie a lot. Instead it jumps around a lot and gets a tad confusing. One moment we have the boxer fighting to pay back the spot of the other boxer, and then we have this diamond that comes in from nowhere. It does all eventually tie back in to each other, but it feels like a long ride to that point to get back there.

Snatch. has a lot of unique techniques in the movie that catch your attention and hold, much more so than the story does. It does have music to back it up and liven up the scenes. The end scenes with Mickey fighting are almost perfect to watch, and are so well done and ahead of the time they were captured in. Ritchie just implores more progressive techniques to tell his story that does work, and really makes the impact of the action.

Rating 7 of 10.