SNATCH

"Signwriters around the world breathed a huge sigh of relief when the title of this movie was announced. Because in everything bar name it’s Lock Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels Part 2. The identities and stakes may have changed, but the game remains the same. Again we are taken for the ride as small potatoes scammers get fried trying to upgrade to big onions. Yep, the swindlers and sadists and descriptive monikers – like Franky Four Fingers – are all here; as are the directorial pop-mannerisms: the crisp cutting, freeze frames and close-ups. Even the unintelligible thieves argot is reinvented as Gypsy gibberish. If LS&2SB had more twists than an anaconda practicing yoga, Snatch’s narrative is more akin to the curves of a boa with a PhD in contortionism. It’s one big, very crazy, very, very violent slice of cartoon realism. The pace isn’t so much snappy as frenetic – ideal for the era of the microsecond attention span. It’s a formula, and writer/director Ritchie works it so well that it’s just as effective on this second spin. There’s an absolute dearth of profundity and an absolute surfeit of energy. The huge ensemble of oddball characters and generally chaotic structure don’t provide for stand out performances, but all the cast are solid and amusing, Alan Ford camps it up splendidly as Sadistic Bully Numero Uno, and Brad Pitt manages to play a conniving, incoherent gypsy and still come off as Studly the Hero. Basically, this is a film with the artistic merit of a pile of bricks (less actually – a pile of bricks was once exhibited at the Tate Gallery), but it sure packs a punch of pure entertainment. Just be sure to bring your appetite for excess."
Brad Green

"Having somehow missed Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, I have to take the word of others that this one is very similar in plot, feel, and casting. So it's difficult to know what all the fuss was about. Director Guy Ritchie seems to have a definite style to his work. It's that post-modernist, fast editing, corner cutting of dialogue, playing with time, mix up of shooting styles thing. And he does it very well. Snatch's opening is great and there are other really terrific moments in the film. The main problem is that the humour doesn't hit the mark often enough and some of the violence is really too violent. The edge is not taken off it sufficiently to produce the laugh over the squirm. Funny bits there are. Avi's trips to and from New York are clever and there's a lovely nod to the mother of Ritchie's child when Bullet Tooth Tony comments "ooh I love this track" as Madonna's Lucky Star is heard on the radio. But, with plotlines crossing left, right, and centre, the film is just too busy to work as a whole. The showiness of the style also inhibits rather than helps. A rather unusual difficulty the film faces is the brilliant work of Brad Pitt as the gypsy boxer Mickey O'Neil. This is Pitt's best performance to date. So much so that he unbalances the film. His scenes light up the whole film. When he's off-screen we simply wait for him to return. There's plenty here for Guy Ritchie and Brad Pitt fans alike. But ultimately the film simply doesn't hang together."
Lee Gough