Snatch

Some have criticized "Snatch," writer/director Guy Ritchie's new film about various groups of preternaturally verbose and profane Brits chasing after extraordinarily valuable stolen goods to pay off underworld debts, as being too much like Ritchie's previous film, "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," which portrayed various groups of preternaturally verbose and profane Brits chasing after extraordinarily valuable stolen goods to pay off underworld debts. This is unfair, as "Snatch" is definitely not as good as "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels."

Like Robert Rodriguez with "El Mariachi" and "Desperado" before him, Ritchie has tried to follow a lowish-budget success with a film that's exactly the same, only more expensive. While money may not be the root of all cinematic evil, it's no panacea either, and both of the more expensive films were worse than their predecessors. Still, while viewers of "LSTSB" may wander out of the theater vaguely disappointed, "Snatch" is quite an entertaining film, full of gunplay and humor and whizzy visuals in spades, and it's the only film of Ritchie's that you can see on the big screen right now.

A certain lightness eludes Ritchie this go-round. Tricks and methods that proved invigorating in "LSTSB" - the suspension-of-time moments, the careful photography, the occasional riotous breakaway from a conversation - seem to have been forced into the narrative here. Nothing in "Snatch" quite matches the poker scene from "LSTSB" for sheer tension, or that delicious scene with the subtitled slang for sheer hilariousness. "Snatch"'s plot is just as much a marvel of intricate construction as "LSTSB"'s was, but the endless twisting here feels just a tad less thrilling, a bit more mechanical, like something provided because it was expected rather than something relished for the sheer fun of it.

Fortunately, the rest of the stuff from "LSTSB" is still there, and it makes for quite an entertaining film. The casting differences are apparent before one enters the theater; Ritchie has hired some Americans in an attempt to earn a nice slice of American box office. If it works, great; Ritchie deserves more of an audience. Still, no one will ever be able to explain why Brad Pitt is in this film, although he does a fine job as incomprehensible but indomitable bare-knuckle boxer One Punch Mickey O'Neil. Benicio Del Toro muses amusingly before he gets offed halfway through the film, and Dennis Farina doesn't do his shtick any worse than he has in the rest of the films he's been in lately.

Nevertheless, the Brits show up the Yanks in this film, as is only appropriate when so much of "Snatch"'s humor is dependent on quirky dialogue spoken in blanket-thick accents. Particular credit must be given to redoubtable "LSTSB" holdover Vinnie Jones as the unflappable killer Bullet Tooth Tony, Alan Ford as a marvellously snarling, savage boxing promoter named Brick Top, and man-mountain Adam Fogerty as professional unlicensed boxer Gorgeous George. However, choosing from among the numerous bruising performances in this film seems churlish; everyone does a good job, and the universal acting talent propels the audience nicely through the film.

And it must be said that, while Ritchie's direction isn't as inspired as it was in "LSTSB," it's far from uninspired here; he directs a disastrous attempt at holding up Brick Top's bookie with both convincing logic and an impeccable sense of comic timing, and many of his directorial devices work on both narrative and entertainment levels. Every scene here packs a powerful punch, whether humorous or literal, and if it doesn't Ritchie finds some way to skip it. A simple formula, true, but undeniably effective.

If Ritchie doesn't do quite as good a job as he did the first time, he still does a good enough job that "Snatch" is engrossing and frequently hilarious. Hopefully Ritchie's recent entry into the matrimonial bliss that is Madonna will inspire him to make a third film that surpasses his first, but until then "Snatch" will serve nicely.

People didn't much like "Swept Away," did they? That darn Madonna!

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