Snatch
Before he sold both his artistic and creative soul for the fleeting notoriety of being married to Madonna, the fact remains that Guy Ritchie did do a couple of pretty good movies, most famously this 2000 release, a British crime caper that deftly combines two concurrent stories into an original mix. The two stories, that of an (unlicensed) boxing promoter trying to make ends meet by dealing with a particularly nasty gangster, and that of a stolen 84 karat diamond that falls into various hands as the film goes on is juiced up greatly by a colorful cast of characters and even more colorful dialogue, with plenty of choice one liners and nuggets to go around. Jason Statham (long before he became an action star) is the nominal lead as Turkish, the boxing promoter backed into a corner by the gangster and forced to try to work with a bunch of Irish Gypsies (called “Pikeys”) to fulfill his obligations to get a fresh body for the (fixed) fights. Those expecting Statham to settle his problems with firearms will find instead a guy who tries to maneuver in and out of trouble even as his character is one of the least interesting, all the while as he provides the voiceover narration. We also get Dennis Farina and his classic bombastic acting style as the American, faux-Jewish diamond dealer who will do anything to obtain the prized 84 karat wonder; Rade Serbedzija as a ruthless Russian arms dealer said to be impossible to kill; Alan Ford as the particularly detestable yet entertaining gangster (who also deals in dog fighting on the side) who’s got Statham in a bind; and best of all Brad Pitt casually stealing and walking off with the whole movie as the indecipherable Pikey bare knuckle boxer who absolutely refuses to let any fight he’s in end with nothing less than a total knockout, much to the gangster’s dismay. It’s rare that a narcissistic actor like Pitt immerses himself so completely in a role such as this, but his character really does come to epitomize the anarchic nature of the story. Truly great work. Unfortunately, we also get a couple of quality actors whose talents are wasted for the most part, particularly Benicio Del Toro as the jewel thief who gets the story rolling, and Vinnie Jones as the hit man brought in out of left field late in the film to track down those who have the diamond, and despite having one great monologue where he faces down a trio of robbers, comes off as more benign than fierce and worse, suffers a VERY clumsily shot exit scene. Still, there’s enough wild dialogue and unexpected happenings to keep the viewer hooked in until the abrupt ending, and overall proves to be a classic from its time which still maintains a fervent fan following to this day…
8/10