Film Review: Snatch

Last week I had a look at Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. Because I'm procrastinating too many ideas at the moment, I decided that I'd look at the "sequel" or "spiritual successor" or whatever you'd like to call it. Two years after his previous success, Guy Ritchie decided to do another caper film, whis time with an increased budget and bigger names in his ensemble cast.

The film has two parallel storylines:

1. Frankie Four Fingers, a professional thief played by Benicio del Toro, arrives in London with a large diamond he acquired during a heist in Antwerp with Russian mobsters. One of his accomplices directs him to his brother, an arms dealer known as "Boris the Blade" (played Rade Sherbedgia), with whom he hatches a plan to steal the diamond. Boris preys on Frankie's gambling addiction, hiring two pawnbrokers named Vinnie and Sol (played by Robbie Gee and Lennie James, respectively) to rob him as he goes to a bookies to make a bet on Boris' behalf. When "Cousin Avi" (Dennis Farina), a New York jeweller who sponsored the heist, learns of Frankie's disappearance, he travels to London to find him. In the process, he enlists the services of a hired mercenary named Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones).
2. Small-time boxing promoters Turkish and Tommy (played respectively by Jason Statham and Stephen Graham) attempt to move up in the world of unlicensed boxing. To this end, they join the underground boxing network of the ruthless gangster Brick Top (Alan Ford). Just before their upcoming bout, Tommy and their fighter, Gorgeous George (Adam Fogerty), go to buy a caravan from a group of Irish Travellers. When the deal falls through, Gorgeous gets into a fight with and is hospitalised by an unintelligible bare-knuckle boxer named Mickey (Brad Pitt). Not wanting to incur Brick Top's wrath, Turkish recruits Mickey for the bout. But Mickey's refusal to abide by Brick Top's strict conditions lands them into more trouble.

Like its predecessor, Snatch features a wide array of characters within the two stories, and tries to develop them as much as it can. Alan Ford is especially good as Brick Top. He may be the antagonist, and is utterly ruthless, but he produces a ton of funny lines. That doesn't detract from his aura of menace though. Who else can say "Goody gumdrops" or "I'm sweet enough" and still sound threatening? His most memorable moment is probably a monologue he gives about the benefits of using pigs to dispose of a body. In fact, his dialogue is so memorable that someone actually made a fan video in which his lines are dubbed over Darth Vader's in Star Wars. To Alan Ford's approval.

Also like its predecessor, the film utilises a lot of black comedy. But I think this one's a little more humorous than the first film. Funny moments include Mickey's dialogue which is so unintelligible, not even the subtitler knows what he's saying. Vinnie and Sol are comically inept, along with their getaway driver Tyrone (Ade). The same goes for Tommy. In fact, I think Turkish is the only character in this film who isn't greedy, crazy, or just plain stupid. Well, Tony is fairly level-headed too.

As for the story, Turkish and Tommy may be the closest thing the film has to protagonists. Similar to the four boys in Lock, Stock, they're not as involved in the story as the rest of the characters. Well, Turkish doesn't really do much other than enter business with Brick Top and then suggests using Mickey as their fighter. That said, Snatch does have a tighter story, with all the most important plot elements making it into the final cut. Speaking of which, I finally saw the deleted scene in Lock, Stock which explained Harry's grudge against JD. Going slightly off-topic here, but the fact that such an important scene was cut from the film was one of that film's major issues. That's something which was rectified in Snatch. The two stories are intertwined really well.

Overall, Snatch is a great film. It's difficult to decide which of the two films is superior. I suppose Snatch does rectify the issues Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels had. But it the same time, it does seem to re-tread the same ground. I like them both though, and they're worth viewing.