Snatch (DVD)

(Dir Guy Ritchie, with Brad Pitt and many many others)

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was, from memory, a great film - loosely based on the caper, but taking the piss and providing more twists and turns than the road to Karamea. I had a feeling that critics had said that Snatch was bollocks, even Sir Richard Attenborough had a go, saying it was "crap" and revelling in the "pornography of violence" (he's obviously not seen a Tarantino flick): while it may not have moved on far from Lock Stock, it was a great wee movie to watch, lots of action and very playful. The "snatch" in question is of a humungous diamond, 84 carat. It is stolen by 4 guys dressed up as Hasidic Jews - big beards and old school black suits, kind of like the way I wish I could look every day.

The original owners of the diamond seem to just accept its theft - certainly, there are no police or private detectives involved in this movie. Instead, the diamond is stolen from the thieves who, naturally, want it back. I have to confess that there were so many people involved in the movie, it was a bit hard to work out who was working for whom. When no-one had any kind of moral claim to the diamond, it doesn't really matter that much - there are no "goodies" at all in this movie. I do know that Brick Top was the biggest, baddest man so it was a very bad move for Tyrone and co to hold up his bookie office to get the diamond off Frankie Four Fingers. So, there was lots of action revolving around the diamond as it passed from crook to crook until the final hilarious scene.

There was also boxing (which provided a very strange echo of the book I have read most recently, James Ellroy's Black Dahlia), rigged of course. Oh, and a caravan: Turkish and Tommy decide they need to buy a caravan, so go off with their boxer, Beautiful, to the local Pikey (a not so kind term for Irish gypsies) encampment. Beautiful gets into a scrap with a hothead, Micky (Pitt) and is no longer fit to fight, which puts Turkish and Tommy in the shit. So, Micky comes in as their sub - the first time I've seen Pitt play a role that I have really enjoy. He's great as this incomprehensible wordy hotheaded maudlin Pikey - his only desire is to get a really nice caravan for his old mum.