SNATCH

By: Iggy Michniacki on 12.7.2009

The Movie Itself:
Guy Ritchie’s Snatch is about one thing… a big, beautiful diamond. Ok, to be honest, it’s not even close to that simple. Even though it’s about the diamond it is also about sixteen different men, replica guns, flesh-eating pigs, bookies, pawn shops, a gypsy boxer, Jewish business men, guns for hire (who are impossible to kill), Russians, trailers, illegal boxing, insert another million words here, and, of course, the dag.

Turkish (Jason Statham) and his partner Tommy (Stephen Graham) are promoters for unlicensed boxing matches. Their big break, as well as big fear, has approached now that they have to pit their boxer against the gruesome Brick Top’s (Alan Ford) boxer, and when I say gruesome I mean Brick Top, not the boxer. Looking for a new trailer to house their management in, Tommy heads to the gypsy camp with their boxer, Gorgeous George (Adam Fogerty) in tow. When a deal goes sour, the gypsy Mickey O’Neil (Brad Pitt) fights Gorgeous George and the ending isn’t storybook for Turkish and Tommy.

Trying to reason with Brick Top they enlist the services of Mickey to be their boxer and one by one, events start to send their world into a downward spiral. At the same time, Franky Four Fingers (Benicio Del Toro) has just stolen a diamond for Avi Denovitz (Dennis Farina) and plenty of others want that ‘fist sized diamond’ for themselves.

Also starring Rade Serbedzija, Mike Reid, Charles Cork, Robbie Gee, Lennie James, Vinnie Jones, Jason Flemyng, Ade, William Beck, and Ewen Bremner, Snatch starts with a few stories divided and then reaches madness when all of those characters stories collide.

Guy Ritchie had done it again here with Snatch. After seeing mild success, yet a beginning of a cult-like fan base, with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrells, Snatch debuted on the scene with more characters, more complexity, and, truthfully, a better product all the way around. In fact, I would venture to say Snatch is Guy Ritchie’s best work yet, as it is definitely my favorite.

Ritchie has shown off an ability to tell a crazy, complex story with many players involved without losing the details or strength of the plot and without losing the audience (expect for Revolver). The plot is thick with funny jokes, one-liners and confrontations as well as amazingly written characters that one would not want to run into on the street. Snatch is also littered with plenty of action and violence, making the London mob scene look a bit unfriendly.

Snatch succeeds even further on its acting, as the complex characters Ritchie designed were played out nicely by the cast of actors he picked for the roles. This is one of the few roles I have found Statham to be more than just somebody running around kicking doors down as he actually is strong in moments of dialogue and does a good job of being the most obvious lead in the movie. The supporting cast is a win also, as each role plays out nicely and I can’t really find anything negative about their performances.

Although Snatch is just shy of a perfect ten in my opinion, I still can’t find anything negative to say about it. It is my favorite Guy Ritchie movie, and I am a fan of the majority of his works. Snatch is fun, funny, wildly entertaining, and offers a bit of action to smooth things over as well. Anybody who likes a good dark humored drama/action flick should have already seen this.
Rating: 9/10

The Presentation:
As much praise I’ve given for the movie it hurts me to turn away from that here. Snatch looks better than it ever has before, and true fans should be pleased with the amount of detail added but this isn’t a reference Blu-ray. Actually, reference won’t be the only word I’ll shy away from when talking about overall presentation; fantastic, great and good will be omitted as well.

The video in Snatch is presented in full 1080p via a Mpeg-4 codec that delivers the upgrade, but as previously mentioned, doesn’t wow. The video is dated and looks a bit mistreated. Scenes are very dark, with colors not always being bright and bold. Some sequences lose a bit of detail in the shadows and don’t hold good in the dark areas. There are is quite a bit that suffers due to the budget and the shooting that took place originally and I guess I shouldn’t be too harsh on the studio for that. On the positive side there are more goods then bads. The picture does look far better than the DVD with an upgrade in skin tones, detail and clarity. The grain is consistent and not a distraction, adding a good look to the entire feature. The distractions are limited, and due to the previous mentioned low budget that is a good surprise. I can’t say this is a bad presentation but at the same time I can’t say it was great.

The audio sounds good thanks to its DTS-HD 5.1 audio track; but as good as it sounds it is also lacking. The movie is dialogue driven with most of the sound coming out of the center speaker. The center channel does a good job of getting every word across clearly, with the occasional words escaping due only to accents and pikey talk. The rest of the speakers are good but not as strong, with surround sound coming from all angles but often with weaker force from the rear speakers. Sound effects, music, and action sequences sound good and realistic but as mentioned, they also sound front heavy. It’s not a terrible audio presentation and offers a noticeable upgrade from the DVD but it isn’t on par with other Blu-ray titles.
Rating: 6/10 (video 6/10, audio 6/10)

The Extras:
There are a small set of extras, most of which have been seen before. There was an inclusion of two features that are HD exclusive, which should be fitting they did something to benefit the fans.

• Audio Commentary
• Deleted Scenes (SD)
• Making 'Snatch' (SD)
• Storyboard Comparisons (SD)
• Video Photo Gallery (SD)
• The 'Snatch' Cutting Room
• Music IQ

Overall:
Snatch is an awesome movie that is complex, daring, and one of Guy Ritchie’s bests. It mixes dark humor with a bit of action, and even a dazzle of drama, to produce a film that is entertaining and original. The Blu-ray doesn’t help the case for those not in the now when it comes to Snatch. Although both the video and the audio catch an upgrade from the DVD this isn’t it high quality presentation. Furthermore the extras are lacking as well. If you’re a fan, you probably already have it and if you don’t, you will. If you know nothing about this movie, this might be something to rent first due to the underwhelming Blu-ray package put together.
Rating: 6/10