Snatch

Guy Ritchie might be my favorite director. I love his style, and it really shines here, more than in any other movie of his that I've seen. Snatch has a ton of good actors, all playing great characters. Each one contributes something, even if they’re only in a few scenes. It's consistently funny throughout, there's always something new and unexpected happening, and the way it all comes together is great.

I'm pretty sure I must have seen Snatch at some point. But I was only 14 when it came out, and I didn't remember it at all. I knew where the diamond ended up because I read a reference to it somewhere, but other than that and the fact that Brad Pitt played a gypsy, I didn't know anything about it.

I like Guy Ritchie's movies a lot, with the exception of Lock, Stock. Maybe I should watch it again. Or maybe not. Snatch seemed a lot like Rocknrolla and Layer Cake (not a Guy Ritchie movie), only a million times better. I don't know what the point of making Rocknrolla even was since he had already done Snatch. Lock, Stock would probably be similar enough that I wouldn't get anything out of it.
 
Snatch had me hooked right from the beginning. I love Jason Statham, although by the time I watched the second movie that I saw him in (The Bank Job, which incidentally, I didn't like him in), I had completely forgotten that he was in Snatch. To be fair, that was eight years later, which is a long time to remember an actor you've never seen in anything else.
 
But his character was great in Snatch. Although I didn't get why he needed to reference "zee Germans" three times. I loved his sidekick, too. I felt like I knew him from somewhere, but I don't think I really did, even though I've seen a few things that he's been in. I also felt like I had just seen the diamond guy and Brick Top as bad guys in similar movies, but apparently I hadn't.

The way they did all the introductions was great, and so were everyone's names. I loved all the quick cuts, and the little montages like when they showed Del Toro gambling, and what happened to the other two boxers. It was great to see Del Toro, too, even though he didn't get much screen time. Tony was a great character, and it turns out that was only the actor's second movie. I loved how brutal he was, and the scene with him getting shot by the Asian guy.

Boris was another great character, like how he just refused to die. He got hit by a car and survived, and Tony had to shoot him like 10 times. And him coming out out of the house with that huge gun was such a cool image. Avi was good, the black guys were good. Every character in the movie really had their own moments where they stood out. Even the diamond guys' daughters, who were barely in it, had that great "you told us" gag, and the way they looked alike and everything was so interesting.
 
I loved the scene where they were loading Del Toro into the back seat of the car. I liked the foreshadowing of the dog eating the squeaky toy, and they even said something about him snatching it, which is obviously the title of the movie. And it was so funny that the dog kept squeaking in the entire time.
 
Brad Pitt did a solid job. He actually had to be in a tank of chlorinated water and not be able to breathe for a long time to do the underwater shot. I didn't really think about the logistics of it when I saw it, but actually it looked really tough. It seemed kind of silly and unnecessary in the movie, but I can appreciate it more now.

I loved the imagery when he flew up in the air after getting knocked out. And the scene where he's staring at the burning trailer is so powerful. I wasn't expecting that to happen at all. They made his mom such an important character, even without that much screen time, that it really meant something. I also wasn't expecting the gypsies to kill everyone, so that was good, too.
The biggest flaw in the movie is that they keep thinking they can control Pitt. 

And you really have to buy into the idea that Turkish and Tommy don't have any other choice, which I didn't. It also seemed pretty crazy that Turkish wanted to spend 10k on a trailer. That's way more money than a trailer costs. And you would think that since the gypsies obviously cheat everyone they deal with, people would stop dealing with them. Gorgeous George was just one guy. He wouldn't be able to intimidate an entire camp into dealing fairly with them.
 
Aside from that, though, I loved pretty much everything about this movie. I liked all the accents, the actors, the music, the way the characters from different parts of the story interacted with each other. I loved the scene at the end with Boris getting hit by the car, and Tommy throwing out Turkish's milk and everything. I also liked the imagery when all of the guys were in the body bags.
 
And the scene where Turkish gets to beat up a couple guys at his place, and then the bat just disappears from his hand, and you know he's in trouble. And then Tommy gets to come in and save him, and we know that his gun doesn't work, but the thugs don't. Even Tony's dick and balls speech worked. Speeches like that can be really clunky, especially when Tarantino writes them. But this one wrapped up perfectly. I liked that he didn't shoot them, even though he could have.

You knew something bad was going to happen when that guy pulled out the katana in the backseat of the car, and it didn't disappoint. The bookies-robbing scene was really funny, too, especially when Tyrone just walked in the door. And it was made even better by the fact that they didn't even come away with anything.