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"Snatch"
This Film
by Spencer
Ross
Repeatedly,
I've heard of Guy Ritchie's new film, "Snatch," as a
remake of his earlier successful British flick, "Lock Stock
and Two Smoking Barrels." Fortunately for myself and for
this review, I haven't seen his previous movie. Nonetheless, I
got to see "Snatch" on an IMAX screen and wasn't
disappointed. Its definitely a movie I'd want to see it again on
DVD etc, because of its lightheartedness, even if one has to
mention Ritchie's affiliation to Madonna, who's 80's hit,
"Lucky Star," makes an appearance in the film. However,
the plot of the movie is rather fragmented and not solidified
until the end and is only a 3 1/2 star. The movie is set in
London, so its great to hear the accents, which punctuates the
fun this film creates.
"Snatch"
opens with the scene of four Chasids who are shown wandering
through a building on security cameras until they finally reach
the room where the diamond is kept and hold the place up until
they get it. This scene uses some great stop footage as they mess
the place up and gives Ritchie time to show some more credits.
They leave the building and get away in a van, pulling off their
disguises and admiring the 84K diamond. Thus we are introduced to
a couple of the main characters, including Franky Four-Fingers
(Benicio Del Toro), who likes to gamble and when he cant pay,
loses his fingers. We also meet Turkish (Jason Statham) and his
sidekick,Tommy (Stephan Graham), who are the main characters of
the movie. Their goal is to buy a new caravan (Brit slang for
trailer house) with the money from their casino and underground,
unlicensed boxing matches. When they head to a caravan park to
try to buy a caravan, they run into a fight and face off their
prize fighter, Georgeous George (Adam Fogerty) against One-Punch
Mickey (Brad Pitt), who is one of the bare-knuckled fighting
champs among the "pikeys" or, British trailer-trash
gypsies. They speak with such a British/Scottish accent that you
can barely understand them, adding to the humour. Of course
Mickey takes out George and, having lost his best fighter,
Turkish must persuade Mickey to take George's place or else he'll
be in debt to Brick Top (Alan Ford), and that is not something
you want. Brick Top is the kind of guy who looks really friendly,
but is a guttless, ruthless, moblike man who only cares that his
fights are rigged so he wins with the bookies. "Do you know what "nemesis" means?
A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an
appropriate agent. Personified in this instance by an 'orrible
cunt... me!" he tells two robbers later.
The plot line then
becomes rather confusing because there are several plot lines and
they don't interact until later in the movie. The man who was to
get the 84K diamond flies to England to know where Franky is, but
Franky gambles on the fights and is missing by Tyrone (Ade), Neil
(William Beck), and Errol (Andy Beckwith), two black guys who end
up involved with Boris the Blade (Rade Serbedzija), who sells
guns to people, and Brick Top. After Mickey hits Brick Top's guy
rather than falling down in the fourth like he's told, Turkish is
in debt to Brick Top and through a whole mess of circumstances,
Mickey's mom's caravan is burnt down by Brick Top's men, the
diamond is swallowed by Neil (or was it Errol)'s dog along with
the squeak toy, and its a continuing chase for the diaond.
Meanwhile, Mickey is again supposed to fall in the fourth, but
manages to stay up and knock the other guy out. How the pikeys
get their revenge comes near the end where it all ties together.
All in all, the movie
was very enjoyable to watch. At times the storyline was confusing
and hard to link together, but there are some interesting
directing techniques Ritchie uses, such as the use of slow motion
and darkness when Mickey is knocked out, sailing across the
ground perfectly parallel to it. Or the security cameras to show
movement through a building. The soundtrack was great and between
the Klezmer, the St. Germain sound, and the British techno, you
barely cared about Madonna's song being there. There's a lot of
gratuitous violence, but for some reason, its all in good fun
because you know that with that kind of music, nothing can be
taken too seriously. High-paced? Yes, but Ritchie does a great
job putting together an lighthearted and interesting, yet
fragmented story.
2/4/01
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