Snatch

(104 min, 2000)
Director: Guy Ritchie
Writer: Guy Ritchie
Stars: Jason Statham, Brad Pitt and Benicio Del Toro

Oh, nothing, Tommy. It's tiptop.

It's hard to review a perfect movie. It's difficult to write about something you love, when it's so much better to just watch it again. And again. And Again.. I lost count how many times I saw "Snatch”. More than 10, less than 50. But given how often I watch this movie, maybe 50 will be the number I reach one day. I'm writing the review, because there are still people out there who haven't seen this film. And if you are one of those people don't waste time reading - just go and watch it.

Turkish (Jason Statham), an unlicenced boxing promoter is pulled into trouble when he becomes involved in big time criminal Brick Top (Alan Ford), who wants him to arrange a fight and fix it. Meanwhile, a diamond theft goes down but the 84 karat stone goes missing. This leads Avi (Dennis Farina), the boss who was supposed to receive the stone, to come to England to search for it, with the help of his cousin, Doug The Head (Mike Reid) and Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones). As events twist and turn, the two situations blend into one with a chain reaction of events carrying on for each and every character.

The script for the movie is brilliant – Guy Ritchie was heavily inspired by “Pulp Fiction” and die hard Tarantino fans keep yelling “There wouldn't be Snatch without Pulp Fiction!”. And as much as this is the truth and as much as I love Tarantino's film and it truly is a masterpiece, “Snatch” is better – the characters are more likeable – we want all the best for Turkish, Tommy, Mickey, Tyrone and even Tony, the dialogues are funnier (“- What's in the car? - Seats and a steering wheel.”), you can watch it dozens of times and you will always laugh, always react the same way you did the first time - “Pulp Fiction” whilst being a superior movie when it comes to craft of movie making can be tiring at times. Both films are 10/10 but it's Snatch that I'll give 100/100, not “Pulp Fiction”. Because there is no line which would blow my mind as much as the jam from the doughnut dialogue or any of Avi/Doug conversations.

The movie has well deserved cult status – it is one of the most addictive movies ever made. There is no way you can only see it once. It's insanely quotable and the genius of the lines lies in the fact that even in the real world, without the connection to the movie whatsoever, they will still be hilarious. Almost each line is pure gold, it's not that during watching “Snatch” you burst into tears 'cause you are laughing so hard. You never even stop laughing (maybe for few seconds during sequence with “Angel” by Massive Attack in the background).

The films mixes great lines with hilarious situations and despite having rather low budget, no shiny cinematography and other glamorous things it's perfect. The story is about gangsters, boxers, thieves – the visual side fits the story. The editing is great, though – there are some fantastic sequences like car accident scene, the hare chase or final boxing fight, the best scene of the movie (by the way fans of Snatch should check out the homage paid to it in one of “South Park” episodes).

Guy Ritchie is known from being rather...interesting persona on set (there were fines for mobile phones ringing, arriving late, taking naps during shooting, being "cheeky", being unfunny, and/or moaning and complaining) and he has great eye for casting people. For “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” he found his actors on the street and some of them return in “Snatch” to even better effect. Jason Statham, who is now an action star, is perfect as Turkish. He narrates the movie with ironic sense of humor, remains cool and calm through most of the events which only makes his delivery of certain lines funnier. If a little gold fish swam to me and ask “Pretty Sati what is your one wish? What should change in the movie world?” I would ask for Statham and Ritchie to do movies together again. Jason's too good for movies like “Crank”.

Vinnie Jones is perfect as Tony and he delivers one of the most memorable monologues I've heard and Alan Ford creates fantastic villain as Brick Top. Brad Pitt, who reportedly was the one who approach Ritchie wanting to be in his movie so badly plays one of his best roles as Mickey, skinny, pretty, mumbling boxer. Pitt is absolutely excellent and plays a role nobody would suspect him of playing. I also enjoyed Benicio Del Toro's performance in this film, I didn't think he can be funny, especially that funny.

I love soundtrack from “Lock, Stock...” but this one is even better. I love how clever Ritchie is in choosing songs for scenes – he uses a song that is light and corny and then plays it in the background for violent scenes as in the scene where we see Tony's flashback and hear “Lucky Star” by Madonna. The soundtrack also features “Viva Las Vegas” which, I'm pretty sure, is the first song you think about when someone mentions the movie to you, and awesome “Fuckin' in the bushes” by Oasis in the final fight scene – even If I wanted to, I would not find better song for that scene.

I cannot believe my eyes whenever I go to metacritic and see the rating for this movie (55/100) and the fact no one of the reviewers gave it 100/100. It's an embarrassment. I don't get many things, but rating movie that good, that brilliant below 8 is unimaginable. I understand that maybe people didn't get all the jokes, but whenever I see the review of this film that says it's “boring” or “not funny” I'm seriously starting to think whether those critics live in some dungeon surrounded by filth and misery. One of the reviewers actually wrote the words "characters fade from memory shortly after the movie's last frame". Now, I found her reviews amusing for a while now and seeing that she gave 30/100 for "Inception" only makes me want to see it more.

And the movie has a lot of fans – everyone whom I know and saw it, loved it. It's not the kind of movie that is silly and under appreciated by critics but the people love it. “Avatar” gets love from critics but “Snatch” doesn't? For shame!

“Snatch” is the most hilarious comedy I've seen. It never gets boring, it never gets too confusing. The movie is entertaining and even if you are in terrible mood it will cheer you up. The performances are fantastic, the dialogues are smart and amusing, the story is clever and Ritchie knows how to guide audience so they wouldn't get lost due to the complexity of the plot. There is only one reaction to “Snatch” no matter if you are watching it for the 1st or 100th time – unstoppable laughter and that wonderful feeling of watching a movie, in which you wouldn't change a single thing.

98/100