Snatch

(2001)
Its hard for me to believe that this movie is ten years old (almost to the day), and whats worse, Ive never given it a straight review (I did some sort of half-assed Cockney-inspired rant about it at the time I saw it, but thankfully that piece has been lost to memory). Anyway, Im sure most of you have seen it, and if you havent, youve definitely seen one of the umpteen thousand movies that attempted to imitate it. Snatch is Guy Ritchies masterpiece, made back when he was a gifted storyteller and talented director, before he felt the need to explain his movies to the audience over the end credits (which prompted a parting of the ways for me). The film interweaves the stories of about fifteen characters, all of whom are colorful and interesting enough to have carried their own films, let alone be all packed into this one. Chief among the cast are Jason Statham, more or less the lead character, in his best role (though thats saying precious little any more); he plays small-time underground boxing promoter Turkish, who runs afoul of a menacing underworld figure known as Brick Top. Turkish is in trouble because the fighter he was going to use in one of Brick Tops fights gets knocked out by savage Pikey Mickey (Brad Pitt, in a stellar performance), whose slender build and chain-smoking obscure the fact that hes a bare-knuckle boxing champion with a punch like Mike Tyson. Mickey and the rest of the Pikeys Irish gypsies, basically all speak a dialect of English impossible to understand. And somehow they get mixed up in the main plot about a stolen diamond (a heist shown over the brilliant credits, hence the title of the film), along with oddballs like Boris the Bullet Dodger and Bullet Tooth Tony (the great Vinnie Jones, never greater than here). Dennis Farina has a smallish role but he is also especially good hell, everyone is. It may seem complicated, and perhaps it is, but the dialogue is incredibly bright and funny, still so sharp it crackles even ten years on; the characters all slowly get drawn together as is the way in these ensemble pieces, but so cleverly that you really dont see it coming unlike all the films that aped it (Im thinking specifically of Smokin Aces, but there are countless others). Snatch is one of the most verbally adroit movies youll ever see, just a top-notch script, impeccably performed and directed throughout. Its hard to oversell this film because its just that damn good, and that damn funny. Of course by now its been imitated to death, but the original still plays superbly (I watched it recently on Blu-Ray, which strictly isnt necessary because theres nothing aside from sharpness of picture that a Blu-Ray will add to this film, but Im going to watch it enough times again that it was worth the $12 investment), is still hysterically funny, and remains a terrifically smart picture. I think its safe to say that in the whole seedy underworld crime genre that Snatch helped to develop theres not a single film that can come close to its inventiveness, cleverness, or wit. This film towers above the rest in its genre, so if youve seen those or even better, if you havent then you really owe it to yourself to see this one. Honestly, if I could only take ten movies with me to a desert island (never

mind how I would watch them), this would be a serious contender for one of them. That good. January 2, 2011