Snatch: Tu braques ou tu raques

I was never really too keen on "Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels". All my friends constantly quoted it, raved and ranted, and then when "Snatch" came out, everyone made an even bigger deal of that. I watched Lock Stock, and though I did like it, it didn't really tickle my fancy. But Snatch, that's a completely different story all together.

When I saw Snatch at the cinemas, I was shocked to see a couple leave only fifteen minutes into the film. As they left, you could hear their intellectually deficient comments; "this movie is so boring". I couldn't believe it! I'd recommend this movie to ANYONE, The Pope even!

There are hundreds of thousands of reasons for anyone to see this movie; each word of the script being a reason.

Snatch is possibly one of THE best written movies I've seen. It's smart, witty, funny and has just the right touches of dark humour. With characters like Turkish, Mickey, Tommy, Brick Top, Bullet Tooth Tony and Cousin Avi; their witty repartee will have your personal quotes list full for months after watching it. The camera work and editing complement each other to keep the film's pace on its toes, much like the boxers at the center of the character's stories.

Jason Statham has some of THE best lines in the movie, constantly slamming anything even slightly intelligent his partner Tommy has to say. Brad Pitt turns out an excellent performance as the Irish-Gypsy-Pykie Mickey; his accent is hilarious.

Even though the story line is only a simple one (following a massive Diamond through England's criminal underworld), it is the connections each character has to the diamond and each other that really makes this film stand out from all the usual jewel-heist films.

Another 10 / 10 from me on this one, it's just a pity the follow up to Snatch was a "collaborative effort" from Mr. Richie and his um.......wife.

A film about boxing, diamonds, gangsters pretending to be Jews, a fat getaway driver, a rather vicious dog and man eating pigs. Guy Richie has followed the success of Lock, Stock with an equally stunning and ambitious return just as Tarantino did with Pulp Fiction. The characters are so colourful they jump right off the screen, the dialogue so snappy you want to learn it by heart and the acting simply wonderful. Vinnie Jones reveals he can act and Brad Pitt shows that he is far more than a pretty face and could well win a best supporting actor oscar for his role as Irish Mickey. See this movie!!!!

This movie is perfect in all its categories: credits, sound track, production, casting, writing, photography, editing, acting, and direction. 10/10.

I was amazed with the freedom of the use of the camera. This movie will change the way movies are made. Slow-mo, stills, black and white, and color were all used to brilliant effect.

I must pick out specific actors who were just over the top - meaning 10+!

Jason Statham as "Turkish" is simply superb - a star of very high caliber. (You should see him in anything he made, and read my comment about John Carpenter's movie: "Ghosts of Mars.")

Alan Ford as "Brick Top" is terrifying - his forced speaking style made me think that he was chewing on the flesh of his previous victim.

Vinnie Jones as "Bullet Tooth Tony" is total tough head to foot tough - a walking brick wall - a marine for all seasons - none tougher.

Brad Pitt as "Mickey O'Neil" is utterly 110% convincing. I never liked Mr. Pitt's work before this - but this one totally sold me - he is as solid an actor as ever came out of Hollywood... and better!

Finally, Guy Ritchie should be recognized as a Michelangelo of film.

-LD

I am a 33 year old woman in a flowered dress who doesn't drink, rarely swears, sleeps with a teddy bear, and has never raised a hand to anyone in my life. But I liked this movie a lot, and according to someone who wrote a review earlier, that makes me personally responsible for the violence in America. I'm sorry - I never intended to hurt anyone.

As for the movie - I usually get confused in fast-paced movies with so many characters, but when I watched Snatch I was able to keep all the characters straight pretty easily because each one had something unique and quirky about him. I liked that, and I liked the accents, and I liked the silly plot-twist humor, and I liked the dogs. The evil men were EVIL ("so evil you would call it the froo-its of the dev-eel" to quote Mike Meyers). The bumbling men were endearing. The music was great.

It was very violent (more so than Pulp Fiction, I think). Yet somehow it did not offend me and looking back at it I still laugh out loud.

Oh, and I never saw "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels", for whatever that's worth.

Imagine what would happen if you took 8 or 10 criminals of various professions, threw them into a maze, gave one of the criminals a diamond the size of a fist, and yelled out load, "SOMEONE IN THIS MAZE HAS A HUGE DIAMOND! WHOEVER FINDS IT AND IS THE LAST MAN STANDING, WINS!" What do you think would happen? Snatch is what happens.

Snatch is a confusing, twisting, crazy movie. Let me repeat that. This movie is crazy! Imagine the Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disney Word on acid, and this is what you get my friend. Believe it or not, this mass confusion and complete insanity is very, very entertaining.

The movie has it's problems. First off, for those of you who have seen Snatch's predecessor, (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), you know that Guy Richie (the writer and director of both films) has a very music-video style as far as the camera angles, movements, and cinematography goes. The strange camera techniques get so mad with lunacy that I noticed people walking out of the theater. I was also turned off by this madness. However, most of this insane crap gets over within the first hour, so it doesn't last.

If any of you people out there loved Lock Stock as much as I did, do yourself a favor and see this movie as fast as you can. Snatch is a bit more serious than Lock Stock, but when it's funny, you'll laugh till your lungs burst. It was nice to see Vinnie Jones, who was Big Chris in the last movie, return as the same basic character (only now named Bullet Tooth Tony) and doing the same "slamming victim's head in a car door" act again. The performances were just as great as Lock Stock, with Jason Statham and Pitt leading the pack. I was disappointed to see that Bendicio Del Toro didn't have a bigger role. I was expecting him to be a lead character, but he's not.

So, in conclusion, if you have never seen Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, I would see that first before seeing Snatch so you can get adjusted to Guy Richie's style. I still think that it is stupid to compare either two movies to Pulp Fiction (unlike most people), but it is in the same ballpark as Pulp. That means if you liked Pulp, you will most likely like Snatch and Lock, Stock. If you have never seen Pulp or Lock Stock, you have deprived your life of culture.

9/10