"You should never underestimate the predictability of stupidity." (Review)

Ah, glorious Superbit Deluxe! Now why can’t all DVDs be produced this way? Some of you may recall my blog about Superbit. If you read my blog regularly but you can’t recall the Superbit piece, you may want to get your short-term memory checked. Or just scroll down a page or two to find it. Superbit titles sacrifice special features in favour of high quality audio and video encoding. Superbit Deluxe titles simply include a second disc with all the special features on it. It’s the best of both worlds. And I managed to find a rare Superbit Deluxe edition of Snatch, a quirky British film from the producer of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

So what is Snatch about? I’m still not entirely sure. The main plot revolves around two characters, Turkish (Jason Statham) and Tommy (Stephen Graham), who are trying to fix an illegal, unlicensed boxing match. At their heels is a ruthless crime boss named Brick Top (Alan Ford) who threatens to feed Turkish and Tommy to the pigs if they can’t arrange for their fighter to take a fall. At the same time, Franky Four Fingers (Benicio Del Toro) has stolen an 86-carat diamond that he plans to sell to Cousin Avi (Dennis Farina). Unfortunately, Four Fingers has a gambling addiction and heads to the bookies (run by Brick Top) to make a bet on the fight. Russian gangster Boris ‘The Blade’ (Rade Serbedzija) hires amateur thieves Vincent and Sol to hold-up the bookies and kidnap Four Fingers. A series of mishaps leads to Four Fingers’ disappearance which causes Cousin Avi to fly from New York to London and hire Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones) to help track Four Fingers down. Meanwhile, Turkish and Tommy reluctantly hire Mikey (Brad Pitt), the nearly incomprehensible Irish boxer, to take the dive in the upcoming fight. Oh yeah, there’s a dog in there somewhere too.

Let’s try this – here’s a link for a trailer of the film itself, so you can see for yourself.

Snatch Trailer

As complicated and confusing as that sounds it’s the ingenious blending of these numerous plots that make the movie so enjoyable. While it may seem like it takes a bit of time for the film to really gather steam, once it gets going you’ll be glad you’re along for the ride. Ultimately this film is about the characters. Each one of them is unique and entertaining. It reminded me of Ocean’s Eleven (the new one) – while the caper itself is very interesting, it’s the characters that make the movie so much fun to watch. And if you’re a fan of Brad Pitt you’ll love his role. Simply hilarious.

Being a Superbit release, the audio and video are top notch. The 1.85:1 Anamorphic transfer looks great. The colours are a bit subdued due to the murky underbelly of London, which makes up the majority of the film’s locations. We’re given a wonderful 5.1 DTS track that provides crystal clear dialogue (which is imperative considering most of the accents are nearly impossible to decipher as it is). The surrounds and subwoofer really come into play during several key scenes. The music does an excellent job in creating the right mood at every turn.

Being a Superbit Deluxe release, we’re also given an extra disc with Special Features. And guess what? I’ve actually watched them! It wasn’t that difficult since there is only a 25 minute making-of featurette, a couple of trailers and some production photos. The making-of feature is very entertaining. It provides an informative, behind-the-scenes look at the making of Snatch. Many humorous bits of trivia are included and if you’re a fan of director Guy Ritchie you’ll certainly get a kick out of it. Several deleted scenes are also available, which can be watched with or without the director’s commentary. All in all, there’s not much here. Fortunately the cost of Superbit Deluxe is no higher than regular Superbit, so you can think of the special features disc as a freebie.

If you liked Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, you’ll like Snatch. If you liked Ocean’s Eleven or The Italian Job, you’ll like Snatch. If you have trouble understanding English accents, you’ll probably be confused for most of the movie. If you can understand English accents without any trouble, you’ll only be mildly confused. But I think that’s the idea. It’s like a roller coaster. You don’t need to understand how it works – just get on and enjoy the ride.

Snatch gets 7 periwinkle-blue caravans (out of 10).

Smashing trivia for ‘Snatch’.