Snatch (2000)

Plot of Snatch: A bunch of fake Hasidic Jews manage to rob a diamond dealer in Antwerp and bring their ill gotten gains back to UK, including a very large diamond. Back in south London a set of three inept black robbers are given the task getting the diamond by a Russian mafioso. Meanwhile Turkish, a slot machine owner and unlicenced boxing event promoter is trying to buy a caravan from some gypsies, during which his boxer gets knocked out by Mickey O’Niel a gypsy bare knuckle fighter. Turkish hires Mickey, who is intended to lose the match in favour of the boxer promoted by Brick Top a high ranking villain. But Mickey lays out the opposing fighter with one punch giving Turkish some problems. Meanwhile Franky, the leader of the original robbers is involved as is Avi, his cousin from New York. Somewhere in this melee is the diamond and a dog which becomes important. Bullet-Tooth Tony is hired by Avi the American cousin to find the diamond but is accidentally killed by a stray gunshot… and so on.

Content: Apparently there are semi-naked young women in a strip club. I don’t remember that. The cast ramble about speaking south London to each other, mostly in threatening manners. It is comedic. The three black robbers stumble about constantly getting themselves into trouble. The gang leaders are threatening. There is quite a bit of gunfire and on one scene a man’s arm is chopped off, but none of this is graphic, since it is pretty well all played for laughs. There are the boxing matches where Mickey floors the opposition with one punch and Turkish and his mate Tommy seem to float through the violence mostly seeing it from the sidelines. Even though Turkish is played by Jason Statham he never engages in any violence.

A View: This outing was variously viewed by the critics but it in No 120 in the IMDb best films list, two below A Clockwork Orange. It was generally thought that the film was just a duplicate of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. If anything the various plotlines are difficult to follow and are possibly explained by the suggestion that after Brad Pitt had asked for a role, Richie wrote Mickey the Gypsy specially for him. So, it is Ok but don’t expect too much from it.

Fun Fact: Mickey’s Irish accent is unintelligible. When he was concerned about his Irish accent he was told not to worry. No-one understands gypsies anyway!