[DVD]

Despite the promise of having such an upgrade on the casting and this being probably Guy Ritchie’s best work (from what I’ve heard), I’d much prefer Guy Ritchie’s debut Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels over his second feature Snatch, which is still a great film but rather underwhelming in some areas that made it less memorable than what I expected.

Guy Ritchie doesn’t seem to have a stylistic trademark that I find appealing besides his swift and fast-paced editing (Edgar Wright does it 10 times better, tho). But the characteristic that I admire mostly in Ritchie’s films after having seen LS&2SB, RockNRolla, or The Gentleman is how characters coincidentally collide with each other during the story and I always felt those were nicely executed in Ritchie’s work. Each intertwining subplot feels like it has a style and tone of its own, with each of them being hilarious and witty during the comedic moments. But sometimes they don’t work together well as a coherent film because I get that “wannabe Pulp Fiction" vibe from this screenplay. Thankfully, the conclusion itself is tightly knitted with succession by the time these stories meet up with each other at the end.

British gangster flicks and its sinful British humour is what Ritchie will always be great at, so rarely will I get disappointed by them. Every single character in Snatch is just so cool to watch, especially Alan Ford as “Brick Top” whose every offensive remark cracked me up to bits. Editing is cheesy in a wacky way but relentlessly slick and exciting, and I also enjoyed some wickedly cool camera angles that looks up at the characters with superiority. The “dags” were nice, too.