Man-eating pigs, gunshot victims who refuse to stay down, limbs being hacked off and immolations? Yikes. This is not a very nice movie.
Yet, despite all that, there are times when "Snatch" is a pretty entertaining one — at least until the next bit of nastiness crops up and smacks the audience in the face with all the subtlety of a crowbar to the back of the head.
It's almost as if filmmaker Guy Ritchie (the new Mr. Madonna, to those not already familiar with his name) was deliberately trying to go too far here, in an attempt to top his first film, the surprising hit "Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels."
But he'd have been better off pulling back from that film's glorious excesses, and instead should have concentrated on his storytelling and character development. After all, there's a gem of a comedy trying to break out of this cinematic black hole.
Perhaps that sounds a little pessimistic, but you can't help feeling that the material here is perhaps a little too familiar to "Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels," especially since four members of that film's cast are also in this film.
That includes Jason Statham, who stars as Turkish, a London boxing promoter in deep trouble with some bad, bad men.
Turkish and his partner Tommy (Stephen Graham) have been running unlicensed fights, which has attracted the attention of local crimelord — and pig-farm owner — Brick Top (Alan Ford, the narrator of "Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels"). Unfortunately, Brick Top has lost a great deal of money on one of their fights and is threatening to feed the duo to his pets unless they make up those losses.
So they agree to help promote a bare-knuckle brawl featuring Mickey O'Neil (a dirtied-up and nearly unintelligible Brad Pitt), a Gypsy fighter who can knock out his opponents with one punch but who may be unwilling to lie down in a "fixed" bout.
At the same time, this motley assortment has also gotten entangled with a jewelry heist that involves an American crook (Dennis Farina), a seemingly indestructible Russian arms dealer (Rade Sherbedgia) and two local pawnshop owners (Robbie Gee and Lennie James).
As he did with his previous film, Ritchie does a nice job of interweaving what seem to be unrelated story lines, and there's a lively, crackling energy that ensures that the film never drags. (His use of music — especially the Specials' song "Ghost Town," and his new wife's "Lucky Star" — is surprisingly effective as well.)
There are also several sight gags and well-delivered one-liners that are laugh-out-loud funny, though they're countered with equally mean-spirited jokes or bits, or some that just aren't very amusing.
Fortunately, the cast manages to make the story more engaging than it probably should be. Statham is appropriately low-key, while Ford makes a more-than-just-menacing villain.
However, the two who really steal the show are Pitt (who just might be parodying his "Fight Club" character) and Sherbedgia, who uses physical comedy to get laughs.
"Snatch" is rated R for excessive use of strong profanity, brutal violence (including bare-knuckle fighting and gunplay), use of crude sexual slang terms, gore, use of ethnic slurs, female nudity and a scene of torture. Running time: 103 minutes.
E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com