FAST LIVING, WHEELING AND DEALING WITH "SNATCH"

I had heard a fair bit about this one. Mainly in connection to Brad Pitt’s Irish accent therein. And, as a side note, said accent is something to be marveled at. Even Irish friends gave it the seal of approval and trust me, they do not approve of every Irish accent going in cinemas these days. Now, I am not, generally speaking, a great fan of Guy Richie. I was actually surprised to see he directed this little number. But what can I tell you, apparently there is an exception to every rule and I just hit mine. Snatch is a fun and fast-paced piece of comedy – action, ideal to brighten up your evening after a tiring day at work…
Turkish (Jason Statham) is a boxing promoter. Only he isn’t a big-shots boxing promoter yet, so he mainly concentrates on illegal bare-knuckle boxing stuff. The whole thing’s a bit iffy ofcourse but Turkish has a few good fighters on so he makes a living. That and the slot-machine arcade. One fine day, however, the whole operation comes into a bit of jeopardy. It all starts with Turkish deciding to buy a new caravan (he lives in a caravan and the old one is… Well… Falling to pieces). Only he decides to buy said caravan from a group of Irish travelers who are passing through the area. This turns out to be a big mistake. What starts as a simple business transaction ends in his best fighter (who is due for a fight with the fighter of the local crime boss in a matter of days by the way. And like most crime bosses, “Bricktop” does not like this kind of nasty surprise) being hospitalized by the Irish Traveller’s equivalent of a bare-knuckle boxing champion (Brad Pitt and his impressive… Accent ;) ). Turkish can only really see one way out of the whole thing, getting the traveler to fight instead. But not only does the traveler not quite perform as he is asked / expected; an 84 carat diamond, three very inept robbers, a dog and a Russian ex-KGB agent enter the mix with alarming speed. It will take all his ingenuity – and possibly a miracle or two – for Turkish to get out of this mess alive…
Ok, so, the thing to remember is, don’t expect this film to actually change your life – if you see what I mean. It is, however, genuinely very good fun. It is classic British humor, one cannot avoid that fact, however it is mixed with a lot of action comedy, some old favorites (like the dumb robbers) and some new, innovative characters (like Brad Pitt’s character – I mean honestly, how often do you see Irish travelers as part of a big-budget movie?). In short, it is in my opinion a very successful mix. I mean, you will, in some places get a bit tired of the clichés; the ex-KGB agent for example. Or any number of Jews and Jewish stereotypes that, as you can imagine, come attached to the 84 carat diamond. And yet they all interact so brilliantly, the dialogue is so witty and the adrenaline flows so freely that, honestly, this film is one of those little numbers where even though there are some obvious little faults here and there, really, they are so easy to overlook… I know IMDB is not considered an “academic” source, but it is composed of people’s votes, which gives it a different sort of value. And if this film made it into the top 250 over there, there definitely is a reason for it… And I can see exactly what it is…