In Antwerp, Belgium, at the behest of unscrupulous New York jeweler, Cousin Avi (Dennis Farina), robbers disguised as Orthodox Jews steal an 86-carat diamond from a diamond exchange. The leader of the gang, Franky Four-Fingers (Benicio Del Toro) goes to London to see Doug the Head (Mike Reid) to fence the diamond for Avi. One of his crew tells Franky to see Boris the Blade (Rade Serbedzija) to secure a gun once he is in London. Boris and the crew member are brothers and plan to steal the stone from Franky. Boris hires Sol (Lennie James), Vinny (Robbie Gee), and Tyrone (Ade) to steal the stone.
Turkish (Jason Statham) and his associate, Tommy (Stephen Graham) are illegal boxing promoters. They are promoting a boxer named Gorgeous George (Adam Fogerty). The local crime boss, Brick Top (Alan Ford) forces Turkish to pit George against his fighter.
Turkish is in need of a new caravan trailer to use as his office. He sends Tommy and George to see some gypsies to buy one. George and one of the gypsies, Mickey O’Neil (Brad Pitt) get into a bare-knuckle fistfight. Mickey lays George out with one punch. Turkish hires Mickey to fight in his place, but Brick Top wants him to throw the fight in the fourth round. Mickey, once again, takes out his opponent in one punch. Brick Top is not happy. He insists that Mickey fight again, and this time really go down in the fourth. To ensure that Mickey complies, Brick Top has Mickey’s caravan set on fire, with Mickey’s mother (Sorcha Cusack) still inside. Mickey is pissed.
Meanwhile, the robbery of Franky Four-Fingers goes wrong, and Franky loses more than a finger. Boris ultimately gets the diamond, at least for a while. Avi, not knowing what happened to Franky, goes to London to see Doug. Doug and Avi hire a bounty hunter, Bullet-Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones) to track down Franky. Brick Top gets wind of the diamond when Sol, Vinny and Tyronne bust up one of his bookie joints while trying to steal it from Franky.
Now just about everyone, except Mickey, is after the diamond. Things go bad for everyone. Mickey, on the other hand, is looking for something other than the diamond. He wants revenge.
“Snatch” was released in 2000 and was written and directed by Guy Richie. It is a British comedy caper thriller.
There are a few things that can make the film confusing. First there are several sub-plots intertwined throughout the movie. Plus, at least if you are American, there are a lot of accents so it can be a little difficult to understand everyone all the time. There are also lots of cuts from subplot to subplot. Despite the drawbacks, the movie is funny and interesting.
There are some lulls in the action but there is more than enough to keep you entertained, not to mention a large portion of violence. If you can follow along and work your way through the various accents, you’ll find a well-crafted movie that has a lot of comedy entwined throughout. You may have to watch the movie a second time to get more out of it, but you’re gonna want to anyway. The movie is basically the butterfly effect on steroids.
Director Ritchie has a cameo as a man reading a newspaper in a bar.