Certain films innately embody the spirit and flair of a particular point in time. In _Snatch_’s case, the essence of the late ’90s is laced into its DNA. From the groovy, thumping soundtrack to the flashy, in-your-face visual motifs; the grimy criminal subject matter to the extreme sports-inspired camerawork, it boasts an impressive collection of very specific, time-sensitive pop culture calling cards. Watching this now, almost a quarter-century later, is like cracking open a time capsule. Imagine _Pulp Fiction_ as produced by MTV.

Motivated the ultimate MacGuffin, a diamond the size of a cueball, the plot follows a number of desperate London criminals as they conspire and connive to pull one over on their rivals and reap the riches. We’ve got high-profile mob bosses and blue collar boxing promoters, ex-KGB agents and common street thugs, each armed with their own peculiar bag of quirks and colorful idiosyncrasies. Though most parties are unaware of the others, their paths constantly interlace and overlap, and the whole mess eventually falls together in a great dogpile during the final act’s frantic, crowded, hilarious payoff sequence.

_Snatch_ is an essentially dark comedy, stuffed with all manner of eccentric lowlifes, surprise twists and grim, ironic punchlines. It is a Guy Ritchie / Matthew Vaughn joint, after all, and following hot on the heels of _Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels_, their successful debut, it punches a number of the same buttons. Reuses many actors, too, with Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones the most recognizable of the bunch. It’s newcomer Brad Pitt who steals the show, however, in his spectacular turn as an unintelligible, tattooed, caravan-dwelling boxer. His whole community is a riot, in fact, a tight group of lawless drunkards who honor no set of rules. Their unpredictability is just the fuel this film needed to bump its fire from a small blaze into a lofty inferno. Is it dated? Sure. Is it still entertaining? Yeah, that too.

In the quiet words of the Virgin Mary... come again?

Snatch seems to be one of those spunky British gangster films that critics are divided on, yet it's loved by the target audience. Guy Ritchie has done a Sam Raimi, he has remade the first film that put him on the cinematic map. Where Raimi remade The Evil Dead, and just called it Evil Dead II, Ritchie cheekily tries to get away with remaking Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and calling it Snatch. Sure the circumstances in plotting are different, and there's a big American star brought in to beef things up for the global market, but it's the same movie and without doubt it's lazy film making. But it still - like Evil Dead II - Rocks!

Snatch in story terms is concerned with a big diamond that stitches together a number of threads involving the London underworld. Some rough and tough Romany types join in the fun, headed by a purposely illegible Brad Pitt, while Dennis Farina, Benicio Del Toro and Rade Serbedzija add more cosmopolitan meat to the crooks and gangster stew. The British cement holding the building up comes in the twin forms of Jason Statham and Stephen Graham, with Vinnie Jones once again turning up to frighten the masses. Everything from bare knuckle fighting to bumbled robberies - to dog fighting and shifty arcade empires - are here, with Ritchie writing characterisations that positively boom off of the screen.

As with "Lock-Stock", the beauty is in the way violence and humour are deftly blended. Scenes are often bloody but also bloody funny, a pearl of dialogue is never far away from a perilous situation. The comic tone is more close to the knuckle here, Ritchie having fun toying with ethnic and machismo stereotypes, while he brings his bag of visual tricks before it got boring. The narrative is deliciously complex, but much credit to Ritchie for the way he pulls all the threads neatly together in a whirl of scene splicing and cocky literary assuredness.

So it's "Lock-Stock 2" then! No bad thing if you happen to be a fan of that sort of wide boy malarkey. If you don't like it? Then jog on sunshine. 8/10