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Review: Snatch
One big, valuable, stolen diamond.  One pesky little dog.  And a
bunch of cocky, mostly stupid gangsters, trying to recover the
diamond.  Accelerate it all to 120 mph and you have "Snatch", the new
film from Guy Ritchie (better known these days as Madonna's new
husband, but also the director of "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels").

Like Ritchie's earlier film, "Snatch" is a fast-paced, twisted romp
through the British underworld - sort of a "Mean Streets" on
steroids.  The plot is a tad difficult to follow, in part because
there are so many characters, but here's the setup:  a gang steals a
prized jewel in Antwerp.  Franky Four Fingers (Benicio Del Toro)
brings the stone back to London, but one of the gang gets greedy and
arranges for his brother, the Russian Boris the Blade (Rade
Serbedzija), to hire some thugs to steal it.  Of course, nothing goes
quite as planned.  Throw in a boxing 
promoter named Turkish (Jason Statham), a ruthless fight-fixing
gangster named Brick Top (Alan Ford) , and a tough, incomprehensible
Gypsy (Brad Pitt), plus a bunch of other would-be tough guys, all
trying to get their hands on the diamond or just get even, and you get
the general idea. 

"Snatch" takes an almost comic book approach to the violence and the
characters, and Ritchie orchestrates it all brilliantly, with
occasional stylistic flourishes thrown in.  The characters may be
dangerous criminals, but we're too busy laughing at their incompetence
to fear them.  One exception is Alan Ford's Brick Top, one of the best
on-screen villains to come along in ages; he looks more like harmless a
harmless old grandfather than a brutal gangster.

Has Ritchie picked up the ball from the seemingly-retired
Quentin Tarantino as the king of hip, witty gangster flicks?  
Surely "Snatch" will be compared to "Pulp Fiction", and some will
enjoy Ritchie's film more, because it's lighter and much faster-paced
compared to the slow, deliberate pace of Tarantino's stories.  
The characters in "Snatch" are more cartoonish than the cool,
contemplative baddies in Tarantino's films.  Though the dialogue in
"Snatch" is occasionally clever, it's not quite as rich as
Tarantino's.  And "Pulp Fiction" resonates with some deeper meaning,
after the shooting stops, whereas "Snatch" is just a very clever
film. 

"Snatch" is full of cool performances, in addition to Alan Ford's.  
American audiences won't recognize many of the British actors (many
returning after "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels"), but 
they will recognize Dennis Farina's familiar "impatient American
gangster" character.  Benicio Del Toro is of course everywhere these
days (look for an Oscar nomination for "Traffic"), and his small role
here is at least memorable.  But Brad Pitt once again steals the show
in one of those quirky, meaty little supporting  roles he seems to
latch on to.  Thought this may not be a "woman's film" - there are
barely three women in it! - at least for their benefit Brad does take
his shirt off a few times...

"Snatch" is dark and violent but often hilarious.  Stay away if you
are easily offended.