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Snatch (Special Edition)

Snatch (Special Edition)

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE MOTHER OF ALL BRIT FLICKS
Review: This movie is in two words F@+*ing AMAZING, the story is a little too close to Lock, Stock but it works. it's funny with some of the best one liners ever in a film. NOTHING and i mean NOTHING hollywood could make could come close to this.

buy this DVD if its the same as the uk version keep an eye out for the hidden extras the very funny

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: More of the same from Ritchie... and happy for it
Review: I guess if you can only do one thing, you may as well do it really well. I'm not saying Guy Ritchie has limited talents, mind you. I'm sure he could write and direct a ripping-good romantic comedy or an intimate costume drama. But he hasn't yet.

"Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" (LS&2SB) has spent the last two years on my list of 'movies most recommended'. It's a rocking tale, following an eclectic blend of lower-class British gangsters bumbling after precious loot. "Snatch" can be described in basically the same way. And you know what? I didn't mind the similarities. Probably because Ritchie is that rare director (I dare say auteur) whose talents range from concocting convoluted but interesting stories, to writing iconoclast and stylish dialogue, to getting the best from his actors, to displaying a kinetic but controlled visual style. And he does it all in one movie. Let's not judge him on that forthcoming romantic comedy, because he hasn't made it yet. He has made "Snatch", and it's a great film.

A plot summary would be pointless, because trying to follow the plot here is half the fun. Time doubles back on itself repeatedly, scenarios play out one way and then are revealed to have played out another, and the audience never really knows who has the upper hand. "Who" meaning an enormous (and deliciously named) cast of characters, each doing their best to get their hand on an enormous diamond. Needless to say its all an excuse for some ridiculous action sequences, some seriously funny (rolling on the floor laughing at times) dialogue, and several temptations of fate that leave you asking the questions: "How can these guys be so stupid?"

It's also an excuse for some seriously inventive displays of stylish virtuosity. Ritchie employs a multitude of techniques: slow motion, quick edits, split screens, hyperactive cameras, odd angles, etc. They never feel forced or contrived, but rather necessary. He also pulls off some neat trickery, like filming the opening sequence entirely through the security camera monitors of a diamond shop. Or an extended pause that studies the faces of three characters, and explains how the expression on one doesn't bode well for the baddies in pursuit. Or the photomontage that shows Frankie Four Fingers in gambling ecstasy. Or Cousin Avi's quickly cut Trans-Atlantic flights (which reminded me of a similar but distracting technique Darren Aronofsky utilized in "Requiem for a Dream"). Ritchie uses the whole palette at his disposal, and it's mighty fun to watch. It should also be noted that, thankfully, the style never gets in the way of the actors.

Most of the acting is top notch. Dennis Farina, Benicio Del Toro, and Jason Statham all bring a world-weary blend of cynicism and exhaustion to their roles. Alan Ford and Rade Serbedzija do some top notch scenery chewing, appropriate for their malevolent characters. Robbie Gee, Lennie James, and Ade are appealing and goofy as pawnshop owners charged with stealing the diamond. They all combine for a fine ensemble cast, an interesting tapestry of characters. Thank god they are all capable, because they are nearly overshadowed by two performances here that, if they had shared any screen time together, would do determined battle for the status of "actor who steals the movie".

Vinnie Jones essentially reprises his role from LS&2SB, a determined bounty hunter named 'Big Chris'. Here, he's named 'Bullet Tooth Tony'. The only real difference here is that Tony doesn't drag his son around to do jobs with him. Jones is a cool customer, very low-key, matter-of-fact, and incredulous when things don't go exactly as planned. Unfortunately, Tony comes to the story too late, and leaves too early. I wished we could spend some more time with him.

Brad Pitt gets just enough screen time. He plays a gypsy (he and his fellow "Pikeys" live in a trailer-park commune) boxing prodigy named 'One Punch Mickey O'Neil'. Picture "Fight Club's" Tyler Durden, with an incomprehensible Irish accent (to be fair, attention and concentration will allow you to decipher just enough of Pitt's dialogue to get the gist of what he's talking about). Here, Pitt repeatedly gets the tar beaten out of him (the boxing sequences are great fun), sports a dirty beard and greasy hair under his ever present leather hat, and appears to be having a heap of fun. That is, until one heartbreaking scene that violently throws the movie towards its engrossing third act.

If run back-to-back, one would be hard-pressed to determine where LS&2SBs begins, and "Snatch" ends. Hopefully, Ritchie will tackle some new territory with his next projects. But for now, he does what does extremely well, and that's really all one can ask from him. If you liked LS&2SB I can guarantee you'll like "Snatch" too.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: 4 Stars- 2 stars without Soundtrack.
Review: I am a true believer in a strong soundtrack...If I was making a movie, a killer soundtrack would be a must. Tarentino's movies may be "stylish" with "hip" dialogue, but its his "ultra-hip" nack of picking the right songs from his music vault that truely makes his movies what they are. Same with Guy Richie... In Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, sure he had cool characters and whitty dialogue, but it was his insertion of equally cool songs that brought the movie from average to "cutting-edge cool." Pete Wingfield's "18 With a bullet" the Castaway's "Liar Liar" and a collection of oddities and favorites from a variety of musical genres brought the picture to a head. In "Snatch" we find a movie that is peculiarly similar to Lock Stock, maybe too much so. It has the same random characters, and the same way of bringing the different characters in different scenes back into one another. We have the same whitty razor's edge dialogue...and the same compolation-cool-various music-genre soundtrack throughout the movie as well... Songs like Klint's Diamond fit well...but as a huge fan of both the specials and the stranglers I was really glad to see "Ghost Town' and "Golden Brown" on the soundtrack... he even includes his wife Madonna's bubble-gum-teeny-bop classic "Lucky Star" as well. It is a good movie, but without the soundtrack...I've seen it before (ie. 70's Blaxploitation cinema like Willie Dynamite et al, and Tarentino's works- esp. Jackie Brown/Pulp Fiction). You dig? PEAAAAACE!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Way Beter Than LS2SB
Review: I cannot believe anyone can prefer "Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels" to this movie. LS2SB was so full of its own importance and style, it came across as completely vacuous. The plot coincidences in LS2SB were very contrived and frankly, unbelieveable. In "Snatch", the many plot twists do not rely on silly conincidences that insult the intelligence of the viewer. Vinnie Jones was terrible in LS2SB. He didn't like to hear his son swearing - unbelieveable. This is the man who when he played for Wimbledon was caught grabbing Paul Gascoigne by the "Jacobs". In "Snatch" Vinnie is really good. The scene where he is told to "open up the dog" and the scene in the pub ( "mine says Desert Eagle .50" ) are standouts.

In LS2SB, I cared not for any of the nominal "heroes", the only ones I cared about were the incompetent Scouse burglars.

In "Snatch" I really did not want anything bad to happen to Turkish and Tommy.

This movie is a more mature movie than LS2SB. The only reason I think that people praised that so highly was because the visual style blinded them to the poor poor poor content.

In "Snatch", the style is there, but it does not overpower the characters or the story.

Oh and Dennis Farina is excellent too.

"Anything to declare?" - priceless.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The second are GOOD!!!
Review: The second movie of Guy are one of the most perfects movies of the century...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Snatch
Review: Since "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" was released in 1998, British cinema has been eager to cash in on its succes with imitators. That could be one of the reasons why "Snatch" is such a disappointment. Its due to the fact that writer/director Guy Ritchie hasn't built on the promise he showed. Yes, his undoubted visual perfection is still there - never so clearly than by the firey opening - but don't believe the film-maker's hype that "Snatch" is 'completely different' to "Lock Stock". It isn't. But Mr.Madonna's effort is ultimatley damaged, while it also serves to harsh facts: for one, it is becoming very apparent that Ritchie's writing skills are no match for his directorial ones.!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: If you like this one - Check out Lock Stock
Review: I give this film five stars, because standing alone, it is an excellent, comedic film.

Ritchie follows the format used in LS&2SB, but I wasn't as impressed. Lock Stock had better character development, cleaner cuts (mostly with audio and music), and carried a much more clever plot.

Snatch may have been developed to appeal more to the masses. How else can we explain Brad Pitt's role? Most of the humor is slap-stick, and there are fewer cockney insults.

Lock Stock was truely an innovative film, and I may have thought this was too, had I not seen Ritchie's potential. I hope in the future, he'll return to harsher Scottish style and deeper plotlines.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Buy LOCK, STOCK & TWO SMOKING BARRELS instead
Review: SNATCH is the much anticipated "sequel" to director Guy Ritchie's hugely successful affair, LOCK, STOCK & TWO SMOKING BARRELS. But where the first film was fresh and original, the second seems to be more a blank copy, which is forced to exaggerate typical "crowd-pleasures" such as violence and "hip" filmmaking. SNATCH manages to create several funny moments, for sure, but for the most part the film loses itself in its own ego (it's as if Guy Ritchie is saying "we're the coolest people around"). It's just a little too much of everything in SNATCH. But maybe I'm judging it a bit too harsh. Let's focus on the positive things... The cast is great. Brad Pitt is funny as the Irish Gypsy, One Punch' Mickey O'Neil. Dennis Farina is always good as a gangster. Benicio Del Toro has way too little screen-time. And Vinnie Jones fits the role as a tough torpedo. And there are several memorable moments and quotes in the film (Uncle Avi (talking to Bullet-Tooth Tony): "What should I call you? Bullet? Tony?" / Bullet-Tooth Tony: "You can call me Susan if it makes you happy"). But I guess the point that I'm trying to get across is this: The film may deserve more credit than what I'm giving it, but because of its excellent predecessor, I couldn't help but feel all the more disappointed about this one (million dollars may be a lot of money, but not compared to a billion dollars).

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Little Too Similar to the Infinitely Better "Lock, Stock".
Review: “Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels” reinvented the British Gangster film and gave the world a Great new director, Guy Ritchie. “Snatch” is Guy’s Second film, and although it doesn’t reinvent any genres, it is still one of the most Fun Gangster films Ever made.

The Story is far too complex to summarize, so I’ll just jump straight into the Review. Everything that made “Lock, Stock” such a Success is Here in Abundance, The Oddball Characters, the Ultra-Slick Dialogue, the Over-the-top Violence, “Snatch” has Everything “Lock, Stock” had Except it’s Freshness and Originality.

The Performances, Familiar or Fresh, are Wonderful. The Casting of Brad Pitt and the Creation of his Odd-ball Character was a Stroke of Genius. Vinnie Jones might as well have been called Chris (his character from “Lock, Stock”), as his Bullet-tooth Vic character here is virtually Identical to him in Every Way. Dennis Farina does his Mob guy routine again and it’s as Funny as Ever. Jason Statham isn’t really good enough of an Actor to Lead the film, he fit better as Bacon in “Lock, Stock”, the Ultra-Slick dialogue comes out of him a little Stunted, but he’s Likeable enough. Benicio Del Toro is as Wonderful as Ever, his lack of Screen time downright Angers me. In the end it was Rade Serbedzija as Boris the Blade who I wanted to Win the Day. He is a Character that Cannot be Killed and an Actor who Cannot give a Bad Performance. (eg. “Eyes Wide Shut”, “The Saint”, “Space Cowboys” and “Mission Impossible 2”

“Snatch” has Stacks of memorable scenes, Dozens of Quotable lines and a Cast full of Bad guys and Worse guys who you Can’t Help but Like. Fans of Crime-Capers, British Humour and… of course “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” will Obviously enjoy this film. They should also check out the Criminally Underrated “Love, Honour and Obey”.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: cliche disguised as pop culture cool
Review: Guy Ritchie, once again, showed his inability of making a film as intelligent and original as the films that obviously inspired him. I didn't like "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and only gave that film a two-star rating. But in retrospect, "Lock, Stock" perhaps deserved one more star; everything looks finer when held against this farce of ethnic stereotypes and gratuitous violence. "Snatch" follows exactly the same formula-a spurious formula to begin with-as its predecessor. Its plotline is extremely simple: a bunch of one-dimensional thug characters coming straight out of a Mad magazine fight and kill one another over a big-ass diamond. Product of a person who did not grow out his adolescent immaturity. Actors such as Brad Pitt and Benicio Del Toro did their best to try to pull the mess together. But in the the absence of an intelligent script and skillful directions, these talented actors looked futile and pitiful. The structure of "Snatch" is not very original. The irritating and unnecessary CUT TOs make the movie feel like an episode of Brady Bunch. I felt numb all over after seeing the movie in theatre, two hours of my life and eight hard-earned dollars completely wasted. I've been very curious why many people embraced this film (as well as "Lock, Stock"). With Tarantino, I could understand. Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs" are analogous to Beck's country-cum-hiphop-cum-disco style of music: both artists soaked up every single popular cultures since the fifties and hacked up a new artistic form that defines pop culture cool. A postmodernist anti-art, if you will. I think Ritchie wanted to do the same thing when he made "Lock, Stock" and "Snatch", but frankly he's simply lacking the sensibility and cleverness to attain the same goal. I guess many people like his stuff because they detected his attempt to be hip but failed to see that his attempt ends up in failure. I hope Ritchie will try a new approach in his next movie. Our film world is already polluted with mediocrities, we do not need more.


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