Snatch (film)

Snatch (stylized as snatch.) is a 2000 British 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 Šerbedžija), professional thief and gambling addict Franky "Four-Fingers" (Benicio del Toro), American gangster-jeweller Abraham Denovitz known as "Cousin Avi" (Dennis Farina), small-time crooks Sol (Lennie James) and Vinny (Robbie Gee), 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 Vinnie Jones, Jason Statham, Jason Flemyng and Alan 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", then later calls Boris and encourages him to steal the diamond from Franky 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 accidentally knocks his opponent out with a single punch due to his overwhelming power. Infuriated, Brick Top robs Turkish of his savings and demands that Mickey fight again, and lose this time since the majority of people will bet on Mickey. 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. 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. Turkish and Tommy, who are on their way to purchase a gun from Boris, 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, intimidating them into leaving. The wounded Boris arrives with an assault rifle and a grenade launcher looking for the diamond, but is shot and killed by Tony, who wounds 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 wildly fires at the fleeing dog, accidentally killing Tony. He gives up and returns to New York.
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, as Tommy, Turkish and Mickey try to run for their lives, 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 as Mickey and the travellers have escaped with their winnings. 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.
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 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".
"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 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 following, and features within the IMDb top 250 rated films.
Soundtrack.
Two versions of the soundtrack album were released, one on the Universal International label with 23 tracks and a TVT Records release with 20.
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, Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment released a "Deluxe Collection" DVD as part of the company's Superbit series. 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.
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 had two seasons.