Snatch (film)

''Snatch'' is a 2000 British crime comedy film written and directed by Guy Ritchie, featuring an ensemble cast and set in the London criminal underworld. The film contains two intertwined plots, one dealing with the search for a stolen diamond, the other with a small-time boxing promoter ( Jason Statham) who finds himself under the thumb of a ruthless gangster ( Alan Ford) who is ready and willing to have his subordinates carry out severe and sadistic acts of violence.

The film shares themes, ideas, and motifs with Ritchie's first film '' Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels''. It is also filmed in the same visual style and features many of the same actors.

Plot

A gang of robbers disguised as Orthodox Jews steal an diamond during a heist in Antwerp. Franky Four-Fingers, the gang's leader, goes to London to see diamond dealer Doug the Head on behalf of Jewish-American organized crime figure Cousin Avi to fence the stolen diamonds. Franky is told to visit arms dealer and ex-KGB agent Boris the Blade in London by one of the robbers, who tells Boris, his brother, to steal the diamond from Franky.

Unlicensed boxing promoter and slot machine shop owner Turkish is forced to enter his boxer Gorgeous George in a match against one of crime boss Brick Top's boxers. When Turkish sends his partner Tommy with George to purchase a caravan from a group of Irish Travellers, Tommy is scammed into buying a faulty caravan, and George is knocked out by bare-knuckle boxing champion Mickey O'Neil with a single punch in a fight to settle the dispute. Left without a fighter, Turkish hatches an idea to use Mickey to replace the injured George in the upcoming match, who agrees in exchange for a new caravan for his mother. Brick Top demands that Mickey throw the fight.

Boris arranges for pawnbrokers Vinny and Sol to rob Franky at Brick Top's bookies, while Avi, knowing Franky is a gambling addict, flies to London with his bodyguard Rosebud to pick up the diamond personally. At the bookies, Sol, Vinny, and their getaway driver Tyrone are caught on camera and find no money, since Gorgeous George's cancellation means that all bets are off. They manage to kidnap Franky, handcuffed to the briefcase containing the diamond, but he is killed by Boris after Vinny accidentally uses Boris's name within earshot. Hacking off Franky's arm, Boris leaves with the diamond.

At the match, Mickey again knocks his opponent out with a single punch, prompting Brick Top to seize Turkish's savings and demand that Mickey lose another fight. When Mickey refuses, Brick Top's men trash Turkish's arcade and burn down Mickey's mother's caravan, killing her. Brick Top tracks down Tyrone, Vinny, and Sol, who bargain for their lives by offering to retrieve the diamond. Avi and Doug hire bounty hunter Bullet-Tooth Tony to find Franky and they capture Boris and the diamond, pursued by Sol, Vinny, and Tyrone, with Turkish and Tommy driving on the same road. Tommy inadvertently causes Tony to crash, killing Rosebud, and Boris escapes only to be hit by Tyrone's car.

Confronted by Sol, Vinny, and Tyrone at a pub, Tony scares them off after noticing their guns are harmless replicas. A heavily armed Boris arrives and is killed by Tony, while Sol and Vinny escape with the diamond. Tony catches up to them, and they lie that the diamond is at their pawn shop, where Vinny accuses his dog, which he was given earlier by the Travellers, of eating it. When Avi tells Tony to kill the dog, Vinny produces the diamond, which the dog snatches and swallows before running off back to the Travellers' campsite. Avi fires wildly at the fleeing dog, accidentally killing Tony, and returns to New York City emptyhanded.

Mickey agrees to fight to avoid further carnage, but gets so drunk at his mother's wake that Turkish fears he will ruin the fixed match. Brick Top sends his men to the Travellers' camp, prepared to kill them all if Mickey fails. Making it to the fourth round per Brick Top's plan, Mickey is knocked down, but recovers at the last moment and once again knocks out his opponent with one punch. Before they can kill Tommy, Turkish, and Mickey, Brick Top and his men are ambushed and massacred by the Travellers. This was all planned by Mickey, avenging his mother while making huge winnings by secretly betting on himself.

The next morning, Turkish and Tommy return to the Travellers' campsite to recruit Mickey to fight for them legitimately, but find it deserted and are confronted by the police. Vinny's dog then appears and they claim to be simply out walking it, so the police allow them to leave. They cross paths with Sol and Vinny, who are arrested with Franky's body in the boot of their car. Taking the dog to a veterinarian to extract a squeaky toy it swallowed, Turkish and Tommy discover the diamond and consult Doug; he calls Avi, who returns to London to purchase it.

Cast

* Jason Statham as Turkish
* Stephen Graham as Tommy
* Dennis Farina as Abraham "Cousin Avi" Denovitz
* Brad Pitt as Mickey
* Alan Ford as "Brick Top" Pulford
* Benicio del Toro as Franky Four-Fingers
* Robbie Gee as Vincent "Vinny"
* Lennie James as Solomon "Sol"
* Ade as Tyrone
* Rade Šerbedžija as Boris "The Blade" Yurinov
* Vinnie Jones as Bullet Tooth Tony
* Adam Fogerty as Gorgeous George
* Mike Reid as Doug "The Head" Denovitz
* Nicola and Teena Collins as Alex and Susi
* Sorcha Cusack as Mrs O'Neil
* Jason Flemyng as Darren
* Goldie as Bad Boy Lincoln
* Velibor Topić as The Russian
* Sam Douglas as Rosebud
* Ewen Bremner as Mullet
* Andy Beckwith as Errol
* Dave Legeno as John
* William Beck as Neil
* Sol Campbell as Bouncer at Boxing match (uncredited)

Production

Principal photography for ''Snatch'' was filmed between 18 October and 12 December 1999, in London and Buckinghamshire. A half-hour documentary of the production of the film was released featuring much of the cast along with Ritchie. Tom Delmar worked as the stunts choreographer for ''Snatch'', and he has also choreographed stunt sequences in films such as '' Aliens'', '' 102 Dalmatians'' and '' Velayudham''.

Reception

Box office

''Snatch'' was largely successful, both in critical response and financial gross, and has gone on to develop a devoted cult following. It opened in the UK on 1 September 2000 in 389 cinemas and grossed £2,637,364 in its opening weekend to become the number one film at the box office. Including preview grosses of £542,638, its opening weekend gross of £3.1 million set the record for an 18-certificate film, beating the record set earlier in the year by '' American Beauty''. From a budget of $10 million, the film grossed £12,137,698 in the United Kingdom, $30.3 million in the United States and Canada, and a total of $83.6 million worldwide.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 74%, based on 142 reviews, with a weighted average score of 6.40/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though perhaps a case of style over substance, Guy Ritchie's second crime caper is full of snappy dialogue, dark comedy, and interesting characters." On Metacritic, the film has a score 55 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

While the film received mostly positive reviews, several reviewers commented negatively on perceived similarities in plot, character, setting, theme and style between ''Snatch'' and Ritchie's previous work, '' Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels''. In his review, Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars, writing that while ostensibly rooted in the London underworld, Pitt's Irish Traveller community were the most interesting element of the plot and the film's clearest predecessors were all American: '' Dick Tracy'' comics, Damon Runyon stories, and zany Marx Brothers comedies. He raised the question of "What am I to say of ''Snatch'', Ritchie's new film, which follows the 'Lock, Stock' formula so slavishly it could be like a new arrangement of the same song?"

Writing in the ''New York Times'' Elvis Mitchell commented that "Mr. Ritchie seems to be stepping backward when he should be moving ahead". Some critics also argued that the film was lacking in depth and substance; many reviewers appeared to agree with Ebert's comment that "the movie is not boring, but it doesn't build and it doesn't arrive anywhere".

The film has gone on to develop a cult movie following, and has ranked in IMDb's top 250 rated films.

Soundtrack

Two versions of the soundtrack album were released, one on the Universal International label with 23 tracks.

Track listing

#"Diamond" – Klint
#"Vere Iz da Storn?" – Benicio del Toro
#"Supermoves" – Overseer
#" Hernando's Hideaway" – The Johnston Brothers
#"Zee Germans" – Jason Statham
#" Golden Brown" – The Stranglers
#" Dreadlock Holiday" – 10cc
#" Hava Nagila" – John Murphy and Daniel L. Griffiths
#"Avi Arrives" – Dennis Farina
#" Cross the Track (We Better Go Back)" – Maceo & the Macks
#" Disco Science" – Mirwais
#"Nemesis" – Alan Ford
#"Hot Pants (I'm Coming, Coming, I'm Coming)" – Bobby Byrd
#" Lucky Star" – Madonna
#"Come Again!" – Alan Ford
#"Ghost Town" – The Specials
#"Shrinking Balls" – Vinnie Jones
#"Sensual Woman" – The Herbaliser
#" Angel" – Massive Attack
#"RRRR...Rumble" – Charles Cork
#" Fuckin' in the Bushes" – Oasis

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