Snatch

Snatch Information

Snatch (stylized as snatch.) is a 2000 British-American crime comedy film written and directed by Guy Ritchie, featuring an ensemble cast. 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 features an assortment of characters, including Irish Traveller "One Punch" Mickey O'Neil (Brad Pitt), referred to as a "pikey", arms-dealer Boris "the Blade" Yurinov (Rade erbedija), professional thief and gambling addict Franky "Four-Fingers" (Benicio del Toro), American gangster-jeweller Abraham Denovitz known as "Cousin Avi" (Dennis Farina), getaway driver Tyrone (Ade) and bounty hunter Bullet-Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones). It is also distinguished by a kinetic direction and editing style, an intricate double plot featuring numerous ironic twists of chance and causality, and a fast pace.

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, including Jones, Statham, and Ford.

Plot

After stealing an diamond in a heist in Antwerp, Franky "Four-Fingers" goes to London to see diamond dealer Doug "The Head" on behalf of New York jeweller "Cousin Avi". One of the other robbers advises Franky to obtain a gun from ex-KGB agent Boris "The Blade". Meanwhile, Boris then plans to steal the diamond from him before he can turn it over to Doug.

Meanwhile, boxing promoter and slot machine shop owner "Turkish" persuades gangster "Brick Top" to put boxer "Gorgeous George" in a matchup against one of Brick Top's boxers. However, when Turkish sends his partner Tommy and Gorgeous George to purchase a caravan from a group of Irish Travellers, George gets into a fight with Mickey O'Neil, a bare-knuckle boxing champion who badly injures George. Turkish persuades Mickey to replace George in his upcoming match by agreeing to purchase a new caravan for Mickey's mother. Brick Top agrees to the change on the condition that Mickey throws the fight in the fourth round.

Boris gives Franky a revolver in exchange for a favour: Franky is to place a bet on Boris' behalf at Brick Top's bookies. Avi, knowing Franky has a gambling problem, flies to London with his bodyguard "Rosebud" to claim the diamond personally. Boris hires Vinny and Sol, two small-time crooks, to rob Franky while he is at the bookies. The robbery goes awry and Sol, Vinny, and their driver Tyrone are caught on camera, but manage to kidnap Franky.

Instead of throwing the fight, Mickey knocks his opponent out with a single punch. Infuriated, Brick Top robs Turkish of his savings and demands that Mickey fight again, and lose this time. Meanwhile, Boris retrieves the diamond and murders Franky with a pistol. Brick Top tracks down Sol, Vinny, Tyrone, and their friend, Yardie "Bad Boy" Lincoln and plans on killing them for robbing his bookies. Sol bargains for their lives by promising Brick Top the stolen diamond, and is given 48 hours to retrieve it.

Avi and Doug hire "Bullet-Tooth" Tony to help them find Franky. When the trail leads to Boris, they kidnap him and retrieve the diamond, closely pursued by Sol, Vinny, and Tyrone. Coincidentally Turkish and Tommy are driving on the same stretch of road at the time. When Tommy throws Turkish's carton of milk out of their car window; it splashes over Tony's windscreen, causing him to crash and killing Rosebud in the process. Boris escapes from the wreck only to be hit by Tyrone's car. Tony and Avi are confronted by Sol, Vinny, and Tyrone at a pub where Tony realizes that the trio's pistols are replicas, which he contrasts with his real handgun and intimidates them into leaving. The wounded Boris arrives with an assault rifle with a grenade launcher looking for the diamond back but is shot and killed by Tony, wounding Tyrone at the same time. Sol and Vinny leave a wounded Tyrone and escape with the diamond, which Vinny hides in his pants. When Tony catches up to them, they tell him that the diamond is back at their pawn shop. Once there, they produce the diamond, but it is promptly swallowed by a dog that Vinny got from the travellers. Avi fires at the fleeing dog, accidentally killing Tony. He gives up and returns to New York.

Mickey refuses to fight again unless Turkish buys a better caravan for his mother, but Turkish has no money left since Brick Top stole his savings. Furious, Brick Top has his men vandalize Turkish's gambling arcade and burn down Mickey's mother's caravan while she is asleep inside. Mickey agrees to fight to avoid more carnage, but gets so drunk after his mother's wake that Turkish fears he will not make it to the fourth round. If he fails to go down as agreed, Brick Top's men will execute Turkish, Tommy, Mickey, and the entire campsite of travellers. Mickey makes it to the fourth round, when he suddenly knocks out his opponent. Outside the arena, Brick Top and his men are killed by the travellers. Mickey has bet on himself to win, and waited until the fourth round to allow the travellers time to ambush and kill Brick Top's men at the campsite.

The next morning, Turkish and Tommy find the travellers' campsite deserted. When confronted by the police, they cannot explain why they are there, until Vinny's dog suddenly arrives and they claim to be walking it. Sol and Vinny are arrested when the police find Franky and Tony's bodies in their car. Turkish and Tommy take the dog to a veterinarian to extract a squeaky toy that it had swallowed, and discover the diamond in its stomach, as well. They consult Doug about selling the diamond and he calls Avi, who returns to London.

Cast

Jason Statham as Turkish
Stephen Graham as Tommy
Brad Pitt as Mickey O'Neil
Alan Ford as Brick Top
Robbie Gee as Vinny
Lennie James as Sol
Ade as Tyrone
Dennis Farina as "Cousin Avi" Denovitz
Rade erbedija as Boris "The Blade"
Vinnie Jones as Bullet Tooth Tony
Adam Fogerty as Gorgeous George
Mike Reid as Doug The Head
Benicio del Toro as Franky "Four-Fingers"
Sorcha Cusack as Mrs O'Neil
Jason Flemyng as Darren
Goldie as "Bad Boy" Lincoln
Velibor Topi? as The Russian
Sam Douglas as Rosebud
Ewen Bremner as Mullet
Andy Beckwith as Errol
Dave Legeno as John
William Beck as Neil

Production

A half-hour documentary of the production of the film was released featuring much of the cast along with Ritchie.

Reception

Box office

Snatch was largely successful, both in critical response and financial gross, and has gone on to develop a devoted cult following. From a budget of $10 million, the movie 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 73%, based on 140 reviews, with a weighted average score of 6.4/10. 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". Movie Room Reviews gave the movie four stars and said "there is no movie quite like it".

Snatch also appears on Empire magazine's 2008 poll of the 500 greatest movies of all time at number 466.

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 2 out of 4 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 Runyan 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 accent employed by Pitt's character Mickey earned him a place in the ten "most terrible Irish accents ever to grace the silver screen" compiled by The Independent in March 2015. Reviewing the performance Jenn Selby said, "Cash prize for anyone that can understand what he's actually saying in this one (though that's, you know, kind of what the character's meant to sound like)"

Soundtrack

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Two versions of the soundtrack album were released, one on the Universal International label with 23 tracks and a TVT Records release with 20.

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
"Avi's Declaration" - Dennis Farina
"Don't You Just Know It" - Huey "Piano" Smith & the Clowns

Home media

The film has been released in multiple incarnations on DVD.

On 3 July 2001, a two-disc "Special Edition" was released, containing both a full screen and widescreen presentation of the feature. Also included was an audio commentary track with director Guy Ritchie and producer Matthew Vaughn. The special features on the second disc included a "making of" featurette, deleted scenes, original theatrical trailer and TV spots, text/photo galleries, storyboard comparisons, and filmographies.

On 17 September 2002, Sony released a "Deluxe Collection" set in the company's superbit format. This release contained two discs, one being the special features disc of the original DVD release, and the other a superbit version of the feature. As is the case with superbit presentations, the disc was absent of the additional features included in the original standard DVD, such as the audio commentary. (The disc did still contain subtitles in eight different languages including a "pikey" track, which only showed subtitles for the character Mickey.)

Nine months later, on 3 June 2003, a single disc setup was released, with new cover art, containing the feature disc of the special edition set. This version was simply a repackaging, omitting the second disc.

Television

See Snatch (TV series) for more information

On 20 April 2016, Crackle announced that the go-ahead for a new television series, based on the film, had been agreed. On 22 August it was confirmed that Rupert Grint would both be executive producer and would star in the show. The series debuted on 16 March 2017 and has been confirmed for a second season.