Lots of people say \Snatch"" and most other recent crime thriller/quirky comedies are just ripping off Tarantino. Gimme a break.
Yeah, maybe they're a bit influenced by his work, but it's not as if he wasn't influenced by others before him. What really matters is being able to make your film entertaining to watch, whether it's similar to another movie or not.
And with that, I'll say that ""Snatch"" is extremely fun to watch.
Director Guy Ritchie goes the same route he did with his debut ""Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels"" and brings us an eclectic bunch of criminals and oddballs that populate England's underworld with crazy names like Bullet Tooth Tony, Franky Four Fingers and Boris the Blade. The thing that ties them together is their quest to get their dirty hands on an elusive 84-carat diamond.
Again, we get a healthy dose of both style and substance in an intricate plot that ends with a brilliantly satisfying conclusion.
The large ensemble sports the famous faces of Brad Pitt and Benicio Del Toro, both bringing their coolness to the screen in a big way.
Pitt, though, stands out among the cast with his performance. He's a riot to watch from the moment he's introduced, and he plays his character, One Punch Mickey, with goofiness that you wouldn't expect from a huge star.
Pitt should be commended for the risks he takes with his movie choices. With ""Snatch,"" ""Fight Club"" and ""12 Monkeys,"" he has proven he can act without the necessity of going the easy pretty-boy route. In these films he goes ugly and provides laughs, and these risks have earned him respect from his colleagues in the film industry.
Del Toro, as well as Dennis Farina, Vinnie Jones and the rest of the cast, also deliver performances that give the film an edge so many Tarantino-wannabe flicks lack.
And it doesn't hurt that Ritchie uses everything in his directorial arsenal to make the film visually exciting. From the use of lots of freeze frames, slo-mo shots and canted angles, there's rarely a dull moment visually on screen.
Ritchie puts the effects and the performances together to create another ""Fight Club"" for Pitt, and the boxing scenes in ""Snatch"" are some of the most exciting and satisfying of recent years. The inventiveness of them put them right up there with other boxing classics. Though most of the fights are fairly short, the final fight that the climax is played around, set to Oasis' ""F**kin In the Bushes,"" is a knockout of action and excitement.
Throughout the rest of the film Ritchie puts the soundtrack to good use, using tracks from Massive Attack, Oasis, Madonna (Mrs. Guy Ritchie) and a diverse slew of others to lend the film an atmosphere of pure cool.
If you're searching for some fun this weekend, go get yourself some ""Snatch."" This movie about swiping a diamond is truly a gem.
