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'Snatch'
Snatch is a wild, British version of Dick Tracy meets MTV.
People have names like "Bullet Tooth Tony," "Boris the Blade," "Brick Top" and "Franky Four Fingers." Shots get repeated; scenes are shown from different angles with different colored filters; characters whiz through so quickly it's impossible to keep track of them. It's not really clear whether Guy Ritchie (otherwise known as Madonna's new hubby) is going tongue-in-cheek all the way, aiming for a live cartoon, is giving us the bird, or if he's trying to slip in a serious or coherent movie between the rapid rat-a-tat of graphics, flashbacks, jerky, hand-held camera work and freeze-frames.
The so-called underside of London, also the setting of Ritchie's debut feature, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, has become his directorial turf.
Seedy characters abound -- mumbling, scamming Gypsies, surly bookies, shady boxing promoter, gun dealers, thieving jewel merchants (Dennis Farina) -- all tangled in the complex plot that starts with the theft of a humungus stolen diamond and ends up see-sawing all over. Brad Pitt plays an incoherent Gypsy fighter and Benicio Del Toro a ne'er-do-well courier.
Definitely a hoot, the movie is also a bit disengaging, almost disorienting. You can't possibly know or care much about anybody in it, since nobody is onscreen for longer than a few seconds at any given stretch. And there's a big cast. The movie speeds past so quickly, shot in so self-consciously and intrusive (and fascinating, sometimes) a way, that the audience can end up feeling detached. Even the bitingly funny parts whiz by in a blur, and the humor here is beyond black, as in killing people in especially horrible ways.
Alan Ford nearly steals the movie, playing the joyously ferocious, all-purpose monster/gangster Brick Top, whose passion is chopping up his victims and feeding them to the pigs in "six pieces." If he's telling the truth about pigs' eating habits, then it's really foolish to dispose of bodies any other way.
The problem with Snatch is that for all the great acting, bravura cinematography and atmospheric British grunginess (there's a whiff or two of Trainspotting here), it explodes rather than unfolds, and it keeps on exploding for 105 minutes. It's dizzying, not boring -- and it's often very entertaining -- but sadly, it doesn't stick; an hour after leaving the theater, it's hard to remember it at all.
I saw this movie a couple of months ago and I definitely recommend it. It's very funny and entertaining. The style is relatively unique; maybe something of a cross between Pulp Fiction and Trainspotting or something like that. If you like this movie, also be sure to check out Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, which is also by Guy Ritchie.
I loved the movie. The cut-up style was fabulously done, and the plot was fun.
There was nothing wrong with all the jump shots and I think that they definately added to the movie. Life is fast-paced and usually non-linear and I think Guy Ritchie captured that well. And how can you complain about all the killing in the movie. It was always portrayed in an amusing way.
Be sure to see Lock, Stock and two Smoking Barrels too. It might even be better that Snatch
Snatch does have other meanings, ya'know....and you would have to be pretty misguided to think it was a porno after seeing a trailer or hearing about the cast that was involved. As far as I know, Snatch doesn't have the same vaginal meaning in England as it does over here (someone from across the pond might want to clear that up for us). Earlier on, I heard that it was going to be released in North America as "Snatch'd" but I guess they never had to change it. We all know that "shag" is not as casual an expression in England and the funny thing is I heard that "fanny" means exactly what we North Americans think "snatch" means on their turf.
Overall, I thought the movie was a very flashy and funny and since it has a convoluted plot,
would probably benefit from repeated viewings. Brad Pitt was great as a fast-talking, slack-jawed Pikey, Alan Ford was suberb as Brick Top, and Bencio Del Toro was probably the most underused actor in the mix.
If you liked "Lock, Stock..." you will most likely enjoy this romp.
[boostventilator]
Snatch doesn't have the same slang meaning in Britain as it does over here. It just means "to obtain discreetly." But in the movie theater lines last night I could hear a million jokes a minute about the title. Someone up in the chain of producers didn't want to change the name of the movie when it came to the States, and thus it stuck.
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I'm just an ordinary man with nothing to lose.
I thought the movie was slow at the beginning and was wondering why the hell my friends dragged me to see it, but as it started to get going, the characters became easier to differenciate, the stories started to cross, and the jokes and speedups became so funny people had to "shhh" to keep the theather quiet from laughter. I don't know what Katz was talking about. The plot is easy to remember. The boxing match, the car wrecks, and the other important aspects of the plot are still with me and laughable. Definitely worthy to go see at least once at full price. I have a group of friends that see almost every movie that comes out. I see movies with them and then pick the good ones so my other group of friends, who don't have as much time to watch film, and I can see. This is definitely one of those good ones.
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I'm just an ordinary man with nothing to lose.
I'm sure that the majority of Americans just don't "get" good British films.... especially Katz.
The comedy is dark, of course it is we're dealing with bloody villians who wouldn't look at, nevermind laugh at, Friends, Sienfeld or Fraiser.
Bad people do bad things, and actually they can be very funny when looked at in this context. Key to this is the fact that they're always trying hard for things to work out right, but they never do.
It's got spirit and character. It might not be everyones cup of joe, but it's not a mainstream film is it?
All I can say is, if you don't like this film you're probably 'f#cked, proper f#cked'.
p.s. keep an eye out for 'zee germans'!
/usr/bin/awake/too/long
Snatch was a good flick overall, and while it won't go down with other gory/badass/humour movies like Pulp Fiction or The Usual Suspects, it is still one of those movies you HAVE to see ... like a Trainspotting, because it is so damn interesting ...
... some of the cuts go by so fast they will make your head spin (ie. the quick concorde flight from New York to London), but that's what makes this movie so interesting to watch ...
... some directors like it better this way .... besides, the ending brought it together so nicely that it didn't matter if you didn't understand the whole beginning - you'll get it by the end.
IMHO, there wasn't a lot of jittery camera movement. I think what people are talking about is the editing that was done
As for the plot, sometimes it's nice to NOT KNOW what the hell is going on
Definitely worth the 12 Canadian bucks. 8/10
----- rL
Since many folks don't need a headache when going out to see a movie, the word of mouth will be mixed at best. It is all right to have an artistic success, but if you make it hard for people to enjoy your movie, this will limit your commercial success.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Snatch 4.5 / 5
DistributorColumbia Pictures
Released
1st September 2000
"Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" was released in 1998. Since then, we've heard more about Guy Ritchie's relationship with Madonna than his work in the cinema. The critics were out for blood when this one appeared--Ritchie had made it too big violating that sacred principle of Britishness: always playing at being the underdog--Ritchie couldn't play any more. He had become a film-making superstar and was living in "domestic" bliss with one of the world's entertainment superstars. He was asking for it. And he got it, if the slating that "Snatch" has received in almost every broadsheet daily is any indication.
I'm not sure what the critics are complaining about. Their comments seem incongruous given the subject. Ritchie hasn't made such much made a film, as a live-action cartoon.
The references throughout the film to scenes from Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs should be quite easy to pick out: gangsters caught up in the role of being gangsters--from their names through to the way they speak--caught in a vortex of anger and hatred and violence from which the only way out is death.
The film mocks what should be horrific: shooting, prize fighting, death threats and extortion. But the killings and shootings (at least for the first two-thirds of the film) are slapstick and no more dramatic than a keystone caper. No one can take seriously the sequence that begins with a car chase and ends up with Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones) repeatedly shooting Boris the Blade (Rade Serbezija) who keeps muttering threatening invectives in a nod to the famous scene from Monty Python's "The Quest for the Holy Grail". In the meantime, Bullet Tooth Tony and Avi (Dennis Farina) have been in a car accident caused by Darren (Jason Flemyng) throwing Turkish's (Jason Statham) chocolate milk out the moving car window and obliterating the on-coming Bullet Tooth Tony's vision. Turning their heads to watch the accident, three pawn-brokers who much to their regret are involved in the action, don't notice the bound, gagged and blindfolded Boris the Blade stagger out into the middle of the road and run him over.
The characters are drawn with thick, bold lines that give them no room for change or development (they all even wear the same clothes throughout the film). There are almost no women in the film (excepting four minor roles), the stereotypes are painted with an equally broad brush: everyone looks a fool. While the narrator, Turkish, is a passive spectator never quite seeming to believe that he's caught up in the events that he's in--almost as though he's aware that he's in a film... or, at least, of the opinion that he has about as much free will as a character in a film. When nagged by Darren for a solution to a particularly sticky dilemma, he swears and storms out of the caravan where they've been sitting, waiting, like the characters of so many an existential drama, for the revelation of the exact sequence of events that is going to bring about life's one inevitability: death.
Casting Brad Pitt in the role of the Gypsy barn-knuckles boxing champion, One Punch Mickey was a stroke of genius on Ritchie's part. Pitt plays the part perfectly and seems to enjoy his stint outside of Hollywood and the unusual specter of a Hollywood star in a film that sees a European release long before it hits America. It not only demonstrates Ritchie's pulling power as a director but also the increasing might of the British and European film making industries. Ritchie's film is a success--not a masterpiece, but a success. Don't believe the anti-hype. Ritchie continues on in splendid form!
With Lock, Stock still relatively fresh in my mind ("Chill, Winstaaan"), I felt that the plots were the same - something gets stolen, everyone wants the same thing, it ends up in the hands of the characters that you want it to in the end, and it all works out. Forgive the mathematical analogy, but it's like the plots of both oscillate around the same, straight line.
The intelligence, and humour of the film, though, lies in those oscillations. This isn't a film, it's a movie. It's there to be enjoyed, not endlessly analyzed. In that way, this is yet another successful Guy Richie movie.
Quite a few of the characters in Snatch are played by well-known actors in Britain. Mike Reid plays basically the same character as he does in Eastenders, a soap opera. Vinnie Jones, ex-professional soccer player-turned actor (Lock, Stock and Gone in 60 Seconds) plays the same character as he did in Lock, Stock and on the soccer pitch.
Whilst Snatch is full of stereotyping, it is still enjoyable, and hilarious. Brad Pitt puts in an excellent performance as the Irish gypsy bareknuckle fighter who won't take a fall.
The end result is full of slick, fast editing and good cameos. The results of Richie's directing are far better than Richard Curtis' weak romantic comedies (Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill), and leaves you with a warm feeling inside - not an empty one, as Trainspotting, one of Britain's best exports, did.
8.5/10 - Samey, but still fun.
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We Build Beautiful Websites
..was less funny but more coherent, I thought. Both movies remind of a time when british pop culture was it...doesn't seem true anymore.
jonkatz@slashdot.org
I'd love to see a discussion of Fight Club? Did people like..according to surveys, young males loved it. But why? I liked it a lot, cept for the loopy ending..
jonkatz@slashdot.org
Nother movie that didn't quite know how to end..does anybody but me see this problem? Movies just don't know how to end...Huge problem for Antitrust and others.
jonkatz@slashdot.org
neat review, and right, but I thought Trainspotting was twice the movie at least. Why did it remind me so much of Trainspotting..really nothing like it..Was it the shooting style?
jonkatz@slashdot.org
I've done a lot of dumb things in my life but I've never hired me..My opinion is no better or worse than yours, I suspect.
jonkatz@slashdot.org
I don't know if I'd say it was sloppy, as skitsy..just keeps on moving so fast..it's neat, but I can't imagine it would stick with people like Trainspotting..
jonkatz@slashdot.org
I have to say, the very idea is a bit jarring. Got to be Freudian..live with Dad..
jonkatz@slashdot.org
I'd not thought of that, but it's an interesting comparison..BW was a lot more primitive, and this one a lot more gory.
jonkatz@slashdot.org
...was just great. I didn't think it was the hopping back and forth between three stories that got to me, just the furious pace of the movie and shot style. It was entertaining for sure, but I wouldn't put on my best ever movies list by a long shot.
Doesn't mean you're wrong, tho..That's whats amazing about movies..any 10 people will see the same one and have a completely different reaction.
jonkatz@slashdot.org
Fun, but not brilliant, would be my phrase, and boy is AC right about Crouching Tiger..that would be on my list of best movies ever.
jonkatz@slashdot.org
I'd have to say the thugs in this movie weren't glamorous especially, or anybody one would want to be..some of them were nice, but the fate of some of these people would, I would say, not entice anybody towards a life of crime.
I think it's a very tongue in cheek movie.
jonkatz@slashdot.org
I'm sorry, but Katz is starting to review movies that just, I dunno, well, let's just say most of us probably skip over katz articles these days. I had to comment, because a review of Snatch on /. can only be topped by maybe katz's review of
the next Rugrats movie, or perhaps Castaway or Family Man (for all I know he may already have reviewed those and I skipped them).
Dungeons and Dragons, Antitrust, StarWars, X-Men, etc., I can see those reviews on here totally. But Snatch? How about Erin Brockovitch or whatever? Let's face it, some reviews belong on salon.com (their stock could use the help).
Is katz getting paid per article? If so that would explain a hell of a lot.
I thought Snatch was very good, and quite funny. I was laughing my butt off throughout most of it. And I thought the ending was great! (wish the Concorde *really* flew that fast! :) The thing I thought when I walked out of that movie was, "That's what Quentin Tarantino _wishes_ he could do!"
Another British movie I've seen recently is MUCH BETTER, though it's a vastly different type of movie - 'Billy Elliot'. This is a great movie about a young boy in a northern England mining town during a miner's strike. He secretly substitutes ballet lessons for his dad-approved boxing lessons, and winds up doing quite well. All hell breaks loose, of course, when dad finds out. Also during all this is a lot of trouble because of the miner's strike. The movie is filled with strange and fascinating (and likeable!) characters, and it's got a fantastic soundtrack (half of which are songs by T. Rex). An amazing movie, and easily my favourite British movie. Among my top 10 right now (though that list changes a lot). Definitely worth seeing, and that's also one I'll get on DVD once it's available.
Another recent British movie that was quite nice is 'Saving Grace', about a widow who resorts to growing marijuana in her greenhouse to meet the mortgage payment. This is an hilarious movie, and well worth seeing.
Everyone's seen 'Trainspotting' and 'The Full Monty', but the one most haven't seen is 'Brassed Off', another 'mining town on strike' movie, but this one has a twist - the company brass band is the main thing - Pete Postlethwaite is the band leader trying to keep the band together despite the town falling apart because of the mine shutdown. He manages to do so, and even gets the band into a competition. Things get more interesting when a newcomer to the band causes a stir - she's a woman! (gasp) Played by Tara Fitzgerald. The movie also has Ewan MacGregor (young Obi Wan, for you geeks). An excellent movie, among the best of the recent British efforts.
I guess when all the musical talent left Britain at the end of the eighties, the talent moved over to the movie industry - there are some really excellent British movies these days.
... JonKatz wrote it?
Ritchie was far less concerned about making "Snatch" a classic than he was about making a really tight and enjoyable movie. And he did an excellent job. The breakneck pace is absolutely crucial; it just wouldnt be funny if we honestly had to feel sorry for poor dead Four-Fingers. It's much better to constantly think of him as the corpse in the tea cosy. The circular plot and manipulation of time (eg: the crash, the opening and endign scenes) keep us from taking the story too seriously; this is, first and foremost, a COMEDY. And a good one. I really wish there were more of these neo-noir comedies; any suggestions? (Is anyone else reminded of "Treasure Island" by the deliberate lack of females in this one and LSA2SB?) --------- girls like it too.
Warning: Plot is discussed but nothing is given away.
I don't see why that requires a warning. How about: "As always, plot is discussed but nothing is given away."
The shareholder is always right.
As I sit here browsing as 2+, I notice that half the posts are from katz himself...doesn't he already have enough karma? Why pull the publicity stunt, other than to see himself write.
Jon's immune to karma laws. They told us this last century. Basically, he can post at +2 and no matter how bad the comments are, we can't mod him down.
I'm not saying this is right, it's not, but that's the system we live in.
All that, though, does not excuse the fact that the only two links are for stories by Jon, not links to the movie's producers, editors, filmhouse, actors, or prior movies by any of the aforementioned.
If you're going to have a discusssion, you post relevent links. Otherwise, it's just a talking head greedfeed.
But, hey, what do I know, I'm just a lifetime member of Cinema Seattle, I probably only see 200 movies a year, it's not like anyone else knows as much about movies as Jon does.
Will in Seattle
Refer to an ancient Brit flick "Kind Hearts and Coronets": "Impatient to become a duke, the ninth in line (Dennis Price) deicdes to eliminate the eight relatives standing in his way in this tart black comedy." Alec Guiness dies 8 quite amusing deaths - and it's in the form of a flashback diary written by a man about to be executed, with an every funnier twist at the end.
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