Snatch (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #67

This is Guy Ritchie's second feature film, made in 2000, two years after "Lock, stock and two smoking barrels". It was criticised by film critics for being too similar to the first film. Is that really such a big deal? What's wrong with a director having his own style? I've put the two films next to one another in my top 100 list, because it's difficult for me to decide which one I like more. Maybe "Snatch" is slightly better, but there's hardly anything between them.

"Snatch" actually tells two unrelated stories. One story is about a boxing promoter who's struggling to make money from a rigged bare knuckles fight. The other story is about a giant diamond that's repeatedly lost and found and stolen. The main characters in the two stories don't meet. They're only connected by the minor characters. And the dog.

The film's plot (or plots) isn't difficult to understand, but it's difficult to explain. There's less comedy than in Guy Ritchie's first film, but there are still a few amusing scenes. Brad Pitt's ridiculous accent is comical in itself. He's unable to mimic a gypsy accent, so he's invented his own accent for the film.

Staffordshire Bull Terriers are beautiful dogs, but one thing they're known for is their lack of loyalty. They're undiscriminating in their affections, so if they're stolen they make no attempt to return to their previous owners. That's shown in the film. When the robbers are being arrested by the police they look up in amazement as they see their dog passing them in someone else's car.

This is a marvellous film that has to be seen to be believed. Unfortunately, after his first two films Guy Ritchie was never able to reach the same high level again. He's made nine films since then, some better than others, but he's lost his magic touch.

Success Rate:  + 6.4

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Lock, stock and two smoking barrels (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #68

How can the first film of a director, made on a tiny budget, be as brilliant as this? When it was released in 1998 audiences went crazy on both sides of the Atlantic, though maybe for different reasons. Americans are turned on by the quaintness of British culture and British accents. British fans just enjoyed the hard hitting action, interspersed with occasional comedy.

The two smoking barrels, held by Vinnie Jones above, give the film its name, but they're almost coincidental. The film is about four friends in London who get into big debt with a local gangster, Hatchet Harry. They overhear their neighbours planning to rob a drug den, so they make their own plan to rob their neighbours when they return from the crime. Both robberies succeed. The four friends head home with over a million pounds in cash and bags full of high grade cannabis.

They should have left the cannabis where it was or smoked it themselves. Instead, they get greedy and ask a fence called Nick the Greek to sell it for them. He offers it to Rory Breaker, the man who owned the drug den that was robbed. He recognises it as his own merchandise, so he takes his gang to kill the thieves. He's not fully informed, so he attacks the thieves who stole from him, not the thieves who stole from the thieves who stole from him.

There are multiple plot twists in the film, not just at the end, but interwoven through the story. The guns appear repeatedly. Hatchet Harry is a collector who wants the guns for himself. After a botched robbery they find themselves in the hands of the Nick the Greek, who sells them to the four friends. The guns pass from hand to hand as the film continues.

The film is made in sepia tones and the picture frequently looks grainy. The picture quality has been criticised by some reviewers, but it's deliberate, and it gives the film a unique appearance.

Success Rate:  + 18.8

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Snatch (5 Stars)

"You should never underestimate the predictability of stupidity".

As I've often said in the past, I find it easier to write about films I don't like than films I like. In that case, this should be an extremely difficult film to write about, because it's one of my favourite films. I was inspired to rewatch it after seeing "The Gentlemen" last week. Both films have in common that they're complex, interwoven stories in which so much happens that you're confused after the first viewing. Well, maybe confused isn't the right word. Neither film is difficult to understand. It's more accurate to say that both films are so overloaded with details that it's difficult to remember everything that happens. If I wanted to write a complete summary of the plots I'd have to watch the films a few times.

Don't worry. I don't intend to do it. There might just be one person reading this review who's never seen the film, and I don't want to spoil it for you. This is a masterpiece, even better than "Lock, stock and two smoking barrels", which Guy Ritchie made two years previously.

Guy Ritchie's first film was about shotguns, but "Snatch" is about a diamond. It's a big diamond, and it's said to be 86 carats. I'm no jewellery expert, I don't know what that means, but it sounds good.

But "Snatch" is about lots of other things. There are gypsies, boxing matches and a dog. And even guns, although they aren't as important as in the previous film.

There are also twins in the film, played by the real life twins Teena and Nicola Collins. I'm sorry, I don't know which is which. They've only appeared in three films, always together.

How is ex-footballer Vinnie Jones able to sit between them so calmly? I'd get whiplash, constantly looking from one side to the other.

I don't know if he'd agree with me, but I consider this to be Brad Pitt's best film. He talks with a crazy accent. I don't know if it's a genuine Pikey accent, but it's amusing. I've watched the film a few times, but today is the first time I noticed that my Blu-ray has a subtitle track solely for Brad Pitt's dialogue, for nobody else. I wish I'd known about it before. There are a few lines that I never understood.

"Snatch" is a British gangster film and a comedy. On the other hand, aren't all British gangster films comedies? If you're used to watching traditional American gangster films, it's difficult to take the British equivalent seriously. It's a million miles distant from "The Godfather".

As you can see, I've written hardly anything significant about this brilliant film. However, if my enthusiasm encourages you to watch it for yourself, it's worth it.

Success Rate:  + 6.4

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Lock, stock and two smoking barrels (5 Stars)

Four friends. Three of them earn their money from dodgy businesses, like selling stolen goods. One is honest, and proud of it. One of them, Eddy, is a card shark. His strength isn't actually in playing cards, it's in being able to read his opponents. His game of choice is three-card brag, which is supposedly a variant of poker.

The four friends want to make money, so they each give Eddy £25,000 to play with. He goes to an exclusive card game hosted by Harry the Hatchet, and he can't possibly lose. Or at least, he couldn't possibly lose if the game weren't rigged. With the help of a hidden camera and electronic signals, Harry knows exactly what cards Eddy is holding. At the end of the evening Eddy is £500,000 in debt. The money has to be paid within a week, and Harry's henchman Barry the Baptist threatens to remove a finger from each of the four friends for every day the payment is late. After 10 days and no fingers left, well, use your imagination.

What results is a complex circular action romp, in which everyone has multiple connections with everyone else. Eddy overhears his next door neighbours planning to rob a cannabis farm, so he decides to rob the robbers after their robbery. The money they steal is more than enough to pay the debt, but they also have sacks of cannabis on their hands. They offer it for sale to a drug baron, not realising that he's the owner of the cannabis farm that was robbed. Chaos ensues.

There are many other details to the plot. You need a scorecard to keep track of who knows who and, more importantly, who did what to whom. The first time you watch the film you'll be confused, so you'll need to watch it at least three times to pick up all the details. It's worth it.

As for the two smoking barrels, there are two antique shotguns in the mix. You'll have to watch the film for yourself to see where they fit into the plot.

And the machete? Ditto.

And the girl with the machine gun? Ditto again.

This is one of my favourite ever films. It's a better film than "The Gentlemen". The brown tones that are used for most of the film – see the screenshots – make the action all the more vivid. Watching "The Gentlemen" this week inspired me to watch Guy Ritchie's first two films again. It's been too long.

Success Rate:  + 18.8

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The Bleeding (3¾ Stars)

Cheesy. Cheap. But somehow appealing. I can't help liking vampire films. Vinnie Jones is totally over-the-top as Cain, the vampire king. Michael Matthias might be the good guy, but he looks more like a Terminator than a vampire slayer.

Snatch (5 Stars)

Some films are just so good that they have to be watched repeatedly. This is one of them. I strongly recommend it to any Americans who have a fetish for English accents.

Click here for a fuller review.

Lock, stock and two smoking barrels (5 Stars)

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! Why doesn't Guy Ritchie make films like this any more?

Snatch (5 Stars)

This was Guy Ritchie's second gangster film after "Lock, stock and two smoking barrels". It was a much bigger hit, as far as the box office takings were concerned, maybe due to the big name actors Brad Pitt and Benicio Del Toro starring. It was slammed by the critics for not being original, they said that it was just copying the pattern of the first film. I agree that there is nothing new in the film, but I honestly don't care. This film is probably even better than his first.

A very large diamond is stolen in Belgium and brought to England to be fenced by Four Fingers Frankie (Benicio Del Toro). But one of the other robbers asks his brother, a gun runner called Boris the Blade, to steal the gem from him while he's in London. At the same time two small-time fight promoters, Turkish and Tommy, are attempting to buy a caravan from a crooked gypsy called Mickey (Brad Pitt). Confusion ensues when the gem is stolen, stolen again, lost and found. The body count is lower than in "Lock, stock and two smoking barrels", but the plot is just as chaotic. Gangs, jewel thieves, boxers, gypsies and a dog. A masterpiece.

Somehow Guy Ritchie couldn't keep up the magic. His later films were much weaker. But he's still young, he has a full career ahead of him.

Click here to view the trailer.

Lock, stock and two smoking barrels (5 Stars)

This is the third film in my Five Star Month. Maybe I should stop counting, before I make a mistake like I did in my October horror films month. That was embarrassing.

This film was released in 1998, but I didn't watch it till more than five years later. I heard about it when it was released, I read the rave reviews, but I dismissed it as "not my sort of film". I don't watch gangster movies. But this film is unique. Well, it was unique at the time. Director Guy Ritchie made another film two years later, "Snatch", in a similar style. It was criticised for being too identical to his first big hit, but I actually prefer "Snatch", which I'll review later this month.

The film's plot seems very simple, but the twists and turns it takes make it difficult to keep up. Four friends get in debt to Harry the Hatchet, a London East End gangster who has made his fortune by selling pornography. They have only seven days to pay back half a million pounds before they start losing their fingers. They overhear their next door neighbours planning to rob a marijuana farm, so they decide to rob the robbers after the crime. The robbery is a success. The money is enough to pay off their debts, and they decide to sell the marijuana for extra profit. Unfortunately they offer the drugs to the gangster who owned the marijuana farm. This leads to an outbreak of gang warfare, with the hapless friends caught in the middle as bodies drop all around them.

And the smoking barrels? They can almost be forgotten in the middle of the mayhem, as a parallel plot, just as involved. Harry has sent thieves to steal two antique shotguns. By accident they were sold to the four friends to use as weapons in their robbery. Harry tries to retrieve them, not knowing that his debtors have them.

Overall a brilliant film, very British, touches of comedy and made great by the inventive film editing. Click here to view the trailer.