SNATCH. (2000) ***1/2 Guess who's the toughest gang in town? Now, why can't anyone find them? Gangster movies have always been, for the most part anyway, more entertaining and artistic than real gangsters, why not accentuate the reality that it's a movie rather than shoot for cinematic realism? Works great under the right conditions. Brad Pitt rules as the Irish King of the Gypsies whose verbilizations make Keith Richards appear comparatively comprehensible, loves his mum, smokes not shaves, and can take a punch. Contrary to the opinion of some, Pitt has a lot of range, he just has to be a brilliant hero to be most effective. He's great at dialect and speech patterns. How do you splice trailers when your star is utterly incoherent for effectively the entirity of his performance? Plenty of lines to go around though, Guy Ritchie floats a lot of characters quickly and well, working off of cinematic archetypes of course. The early 21st century editing, slo-mo for flying boxers, fast mo for flying gangsters, is innovative if not inventive and works well, all the time demanding, "look at me, I'm a film!" Responsible for one of the all-time great movie t-shirts as modeled by Mrs. Ritchie ("Snatch...coming soon"). Also, best use ever cinematic use of the Oasis masterpiece "Fuckin' in the Bushes."
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