SNATCH
Starring: Brad Pitt, Benico Del Toro, Jason Statham
Directed by: Guy Ritchie
Distributed by: Columbia / Screen Gems

Date: 1/31/01
By: Rice

    Snatch's undenyable main attraction is, of course, Brad Pitt's hilarious Irish gypsy accent. I first watched this trailer online waaaay back when it was first released in the summer in Europe. When Pitt's character mumbled, "Cfjalsdk, fkjaliree.. and... uh... ajfkeiquqo," I promptly tipped over in my chair laughing. The catch was that it sounded almost coherent, but doesn't quite cross that border. Heh heh. Leave it up to Guy Ritchie to come up with stuff like that.

    Speaking of which, we're all clear on the fact that he's Mr. Madonna now, right? Right.

Brad Pitt plays Mickey, a bare knuckle fighting champ.

    Anyways, I've read the reviews before I watched the movie myself, and it seems as if it's almost universally agreed that Snatch was nothing but Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels part 2. Well, I never saw the latter, so I thought what the hey, more entertainment for me. If you've seen Lock Stock, though, bear in mind you may not be treated to anything particularly new. Okay, onto the review now. I promise.

    The plot is a fairly convoluted one. Basically, a thug named Frankie Four Fingers (Benico Del Toro) stole a diamond the size of a fist. As news spread around the shadier parts of town, everyone from common thieves to hired hitmen to boxing promoters are out for it. What ensues is a complex weaving of all the characters that are involved in this diamond chase together into the story.

Bullet-Tooth Tony (right) and his Desert Eagle point five-O.

    Mr. Madonna's directing was pretty slick. He utilized lots of quick cuts to different scenes, and some background narration to help smooth out some of the rougher patches in the plotline.  Ritchie also used some of the bunny hopping timeline techniques Quentin Tarentino used in Pulp Fiction, which I found pretty effective, because it highlighted seemingly coincidental events in a comedic manner.

    All the actors did fair jobs. It was Brad Pitt who absolutely stole the entire show. Sometimes I couldn't wait for the movie to cut back to his part of the story. Just hearing him talk was enough to make me want to crack up. However, the bare-knuckle boxing champion character he portrayed included an added depth that Pitt was able to bring out flawlessly. It increases my respect for him as an actor rather than just another stud-on-screen.

Bow wow. *Squeak!*

    My biggest beef with Snatch was its hard to understand dialogue. Almost every character had a heavy English accent that made me want to slap them around a bit in an attempt to get them to speak clearly. Because it took a while to get used to, a lot of the earlier lines spoken were lost on me. I'm going to have to catch this again sometime later to fully understand how the plot was setup in the beginning. Micky was the worst. He alternated between saying stuff you're actually supposed to understand, and saying gibberish that was supposed to be utterly incomprehensible. I'll chalk this up to me not being British.

    With all that said and done, Snatch is still a rather entertaining movie with some of the funniest dry sarcastic humor I've ever heard..... whenever I could understand what they were saying, that is. Mindless comedy's a good way of categorizing it. If anything, watch it for Brad Pitt's brilliant acting performance. Studly.

Don't mess with Irish gypsies.

Grade: B+
-- Takes a while to understand the language. Mindless comedy ensues afterwards.

Babe-o-meter: C
-- I think there were these twins...... and a brief nude scene.