Snatch


You may have already seen that I thought quite highly of Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels. Well, he's done it again, this time with a cast of know-names and an equally convoluted plot.

I can't say Snatch (aka Diamonds, The Guy Ritchie Project, and Snatch'd) is easier to follow than Lock, Stock but I believe it's by design. Both movies are dark and violent, but this one is much funnier, perhaps because I could understand most of what was being said. Or maybe because Brad Pitt as the mumbling Irish gypsy (pikey) One Punch Mickey O'Neil is generally unintelligible. (Do I detect a tie to Fight Club?)

This movie had a distinct Tarantino feel — never a bad thing in my book. In fact, if Lock, Stock is Ritchie's Cockney version of Reservoir Dogs, Snatch is his equivalent of Pulp Fiction. One review I saw compared Alan Ford's character, Brick Top, to Michael Madsen's Mr. Blonde. In fact, he may have been more ruthless and wicked — and he has a pig farm that serves a specific purpose, which seemed ironic considering Hannibal opened a few weeks later. Alan Ford, by the way, was the narrator in Lock, Stockbricktop.jpg]

[turkish.jpg]Ritchie drew a few other names from his previous movie: Vinnie Jones, who was Big Chris, the doting father/hitman in Lock, Stock is Bullet Tooth Tony in this one. Jason Statham (Bacon) comes back as Turkish, a novice boxing promoter and the narrator of this story. And Jason Flemyng (Tom) is back as Darren, Mickey's best friend. So what's the story?

Simply put, an 80+ karat diamond is the object of much attention.

Rather than provide more detail than that, I’ll give you some tidbits to chew on.

* The boxing scenes were more authentic than one might think. Great Britain’s welterweight champion Scott Dixon stood in for Brad Pitt in the up-close bare knuckle–punching scenes. Boxing fans might also recognize former UK champs Mickey Cantwell (flyweight) and Scott Welsh (heavyweight).

* Rumor has it that after Lock,Stock came out, Brad Pitt asked to be in Ritchie’s next movie. He must have taken quite a reduction in pay, since the budget for Snatch was just $6 million.

* Benicio Del Toro hasn’t quite mastered Yiddish.

* Dog’s character was played by brother-and-sister team, Mitch and Sugar. The squeaky toy effects were added by the foley after the filming (that’s what foleys do).

* In case you’ve been locked in the closet, Guy Ritchie recently married Madonna.

The copyright of the article Snatch in Crime Stories is owned by Catten Ely. Permission to republish Snatch in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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