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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.85:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer (RSDL )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
    English, German, Hebrew, Czech, Greek, Polish, Hungarian, Dutch, Arabic, Turkish, Icelandic, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Bulgarian
  Extras
  • 6 Deleted scenes - with 3 inserted back into the feature via the
  • 2 Theatrical trailer
  • Audio commentary - with director Guy Ritchie
  • Production notes
  • Photo gallery
  • Animated menus
  • 4 TV spot
  • Interviews - sound bites
  • Awards/Nominations
  • Storyboards
  • Multiple angle - in the storyboard comparisons
  • Outtakes - 5 mins of B-roll footage
  • Filmographies

Snatch

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment/Sony Pictures Home Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 104 mins . MA15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Riding high on the popularity of Lock, Stock and Two smoking Barrels, it was inevitable that Guy Ritchie would followup with a similar styled movie, more polished and with a larger story to tell. What we get is exactly that and a lot more.

Snatch is one of those movies with a plot that is difficult to describe given it's multiple storylines, consequences and conclusions. Suffice to say that it can be simplified to an extent where it doesn't do the film justice. Here's a strained attempt on my behalf.

Turkish (Jason Statham) and Tommy (Stephen Graham) are the boxing managers for Gorgeous George (Adam Fogerty), a hulk of a man with a face that is anything but gorgeous. Their problem is that their local illegal promoter is Brick Top (Alan Ford), a righteous C@#t that has a habit of feeding anyone that displeases him to his pigs. On an outing to pick up a caravan for Turkish from a group of Pikeys, Tommy and George meet One Punch Mickey O'Neil (Brad Pitt), a gypsy with an accent that is inconprehensible and hilarious at the same time.

Meanwhile Franky Four Fingers (Benicio Del Toro) has been sent to England by Cousin Avi (Dennis Farina) to 'borrow' an 86 carrat diamond and deliver it to Doug the Head (Mike Reid). While in London, Frankie visits Boris The Blade (Rade Serbedzija) to acquire a gun. The intention being for Boris and his brother to steal the stone off Frankie.

All goes wrong when a wannabe bunch of crooks attempt to steal the diamond themselves and soon Cousin Avi is in London himself and has enlisted the services of hitman, Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones), to help track down the diamond. It all comes to a head in a hilarious succession of events, ala Lock Stock.

  Video
Contract

The theatrical print of Snatch had a dark and muted color scheme that presented the East End with a very gritty and dull look to set the tone of the movie. All of that character has been captured beautifully on the DVD transfer without a hint of digital enhancing to be seen. This image is truly film like and would render exceptionally well on a nicely calibrated projector.

Ritchies first attempt in Lock Stock had a very bright image at times that lost the real character of the movie for me but with the increased budget on this project, a lot more time and effort has gone into preserving the original look he was after. Couple that with Sonys brilliant compression center and you've got one spiffy looking image.

The black levels are deep and consistent throughout, accentuating the style of the production. Whilst the colors are muted, there is still a sense of vibrancy to the image that makes it come to life in a sense. Exceptional.

  Audio
Contract

Whilst providing a 5.1 soundtrack, the use of all 6 channels is not fully realised. The movie is dialogue driven, as was his first effort, and on that level the dialogue is clear and concise throughout the whole movie, not dropping in tone or volume levels at all.

The full use of the sound stage is evident when gunfire is present or the rocking soundtrack kicks in. Gunfire is the key here as when shots are fired, your living room livens up with a level of decibels you may not have been anticipating during the tamer dialogue scenes.

  Extras
Contract

To supplement this great movie is a second DVD full of a perfect selection of extras in the same tone of the film. There are also a few on the first disc itself.

Disc 1
The first obvious 'difference' is that the City Dolby Digital trailer has finally been replaced by the much cooler Train Dolby Digital trailer. A long time in coming, this change already makes the extra features on this DVD so much cooler already.

As usual, to accompany the movie is a Directors Commentary featuring Guy Ritchie and Matthew Vaughn. The banter is the usual fare but with a touch of humility and the insight provided is not found in any of the other extras to grace the DVD. There is a subtitle track included, but not what you would normally expect. In this case you can select to enable the Pikey Subtitles whereby the subtitles only appear when Brads characters charms our screen with his gibberish. :)

Finally, a Stealing Stones feature, much in the same way as the Follow the White Rabbit feature on the matrix DVD. Here, when the diamond appears in the top right corner, pressing the SELECT/ENTER key on your remote will cause the movie to jump into the footage of a deleted scene that was removed from that moment within the movie. There are only 3 instances on this disc with these and the rest of the deleted scenes on disc 2.

Disc 2
The 2 main features on this single layer DVD are a 25 minute Making of feature and a 24 minute Sound Bites feature. Both include extensive interview material with bost cast and crew, presented in a very interesting way with Guy Ritchie taking us through the feature himself at times. The hour spent watching the features is not time lost for fans of the movie and Guy Ritchies work, exluding Madonna ofcourse. To this was added a 5 minute B roll footage section.

From there we are treated to those 6 Deleted Scenes in their very ordinary full-frame, washed out video format but are coupled with commentary on why they were removed. The Song Selection feature allows you to select one of the songs from the soundtrack and you are then taken to scene in the movie. This feature could have been left on the first disc and used the actual video stream from the movie to preserve space (only if it were necessary though as the second disc is only single layered so there is no real space concerns that had to be addressed).

Moving right along we come to the Storyboard Comparisons where the use of the multi-angle button on your remote allows you to switch between the original storyboard and the final shot scene from the movie.

The remaining extras are the usual suspects of DVD features with 4 TV Spots and 2 trailers, theatrical and international, making up the visual side and the Talent Profiles, Photo Gallery and

Production Notes making up the static side with the talent profiles containing and additional One Liners feature with a line from the movie for each character in the menu. Nice touch.

Just when you thought you had gotten through them all, a few more non-obvious extras crop up. Firstly we are blessed with a Dolby intro trailer with the difference here being that the City trailer has been dropped for my all time favorite "Train" trailer. About time we had a change. Secondly we have a large collection of easter eggs on this DVD, the most for any current region 4 release to date and all of them are great in their own way. I won't reveal them here so head on over to the Easter Egg section to read about them now or wait for the DVD to be released and see if you can find them all yourself.

  Overall  
Contract

You can probably judge if you are going to like this movie on how much you enjoyed Lock Stock. For me, I found Snatch to be a much more polished movie with a greater selection of laughs in combination with a much darker tone.

But the deciding factor is it's rewatchability where it never seems to lose any of it's pace. The numerous one liners available here is pure genius on the part of the writers and really does enhance the appeal of the movie and this DVD.

Highly recommended.


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      And I quote...
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    - Steve Koukoulas
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Sony DVP-7000
    • TV:
          Sony WEGA 80cm
    • Receiver:
          Yamaha RX-V2095
    • Speakers:
          Sony
    • Centre Speaker:
          Sony
    • Surrounds:
          Aaron SS-120
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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