Pitt “snatches” Brit crime flick

Would it be vulgar to say “‘Snatch’ is good?” Probably. But director Guy Ritchie must have known what he was getting into when he named his second film a double-entendre for a certain sex organ. Just the same, he must have known that making the content of the film extremely similar to his debut film, “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” would set him up for cries of self-imitation. True, the films are similar in plot and style, but both are also a lot of fun. The only problem with comparing “Snatch” to his previous outing is that the more recent is slightly weaker. But while not quite “Lock, Stock,” on it’s own terms, “Snatch” is about as entertaining and exciting as an action film can get.

Like its predecessor, “Snatch” is a film featuring guys with British accents in pursuit of a certain item–trying to snatch it, if you will. In “Lock, Stock,” it was the “Two Smoking Barrels” (better known as guns) and in “Snatch,” it’s a large diamond. There are lots of flashy camera tricks, freeze frames, jump cuts and a general level of energy present throughout both films.

“Snatch” deviates from “Lock, Stock” in scope and tone. While “Lock, Stock” had numerous characters, they all stayed within a limited radius and connected more immediately. Despite the bloodshed, the mood of the film was nevertheless light. “Snatch” is a tad darker, with a scope involving not only the local cockney crooks, but a Russian arms dealer, a diamond dealer from the U.S. and an ever-expanding cast of characters that all seem to get in the way of each other’s pursuits.

The cast includes a few newcomers and “Lock, Stock” alums like Jason Statham, who plays Turkish, the film’s narrator. Statham has the difficult task of making his low-life protagonist likeable, but he succeeds, and his delivery of the words “Ze Germans” is priceless. There are also a few bigger stars along for the ride. Benicio Del Toro (“Traffic”) plays jewel thief Franky Four Fingers. Also looking for the diamond are Dennis Farina (“Get Shorty”) and Brad Pitt, who appears with an almost indecipherable Irish accent as a gypsy-bare-knuckle fighter.

Of those, Pitt, who finally got an accent down (unlike his Irish accent in “Devil’s Own”), undergoes the biggest transformation. He has one of the film’s harshest moments about late in the film and manages to display some emotional depth without even speaking. Farina, on the other hand, gets most of the film’s best lines, like the one heard in the trailer: “Do you have anything to declare?” he asks a customs officer at an airport. “Yeah,” a battered Farina says, “don’t go ta’ England.”

Around the time of the film’s release, Ritchie was compared with both Quentin Tarantino and “Trainspotting” director Danny Boyle. While his films do share “Trainspotting”’s energy and flair and could be called the British cousin of Tarentino’s “Pulp Fiction” and “Reservoir Dogs,” Ritchie seems to have carved a niche of his own for cockney crime films.

Now, about that title...