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"Stealin'
Stones and Breakin' Bones" |
Reviewed by
Cass Nunn |
Director
Guy Richie
Cast
Benicio Del Toro,
Dennis Farina,
Vinnie Jones,
Brad Pitt,
Rade Serbedzija,
Jason Statham,
Alan Ford,
Mike Reid,
Robbie Gee,
Lennie James,
Ewen Bremmer,
Jason Flemyng
Music
John Murphy |
| Screen
Format/s |
1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen |
| Audio
Track/s |
DD5.1
English,
DD2.0 Commentary Track |
| Subtitle/s
|
English,
Hindi, Pikey |
| Region Code
|
2,4 |
| Chapters
|
28 |
| Disc Format
|
1 x DVD9
+ 1 x DVD5 |
| Running
Time |
99 minutes |
| Extras |
Disc 1
- Dolby Train Trailer
- Audio Commentary: Guy Ritchie and Mathew Vaughn
- Stealing Stones: Extended Cut
- Easter Egg: Pikey SubtitlesDisc 2
- Song Selection
- International Trailer
- Theatrical Trailer
- Soundbites
- Photo Library
- Featurette: making of Snatch
- Production Notes
- TV Spots
- Deleted Scenes
- Filmographies
- Storyboard Comparison
- Featurette: B Roll footage
- Easter Egg: Fines
- Easter Egg: Doug’s Rings
- Easter Egg: Doug’s Message
- Easter Egg: Swearing and Gunplay montage
- Easter Egg: One-Liners |
| Classification
|
MA15+ (Medium level
violence, Medium level sex scene) |
| Distributor
|
CTHE |
| Release
date |
24th April 2001 |
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Through my own fault I managed to miss this at the
cinemas and have been eagerly awaiting it’s arrival on DVD. Since Lock Stock and Two
Smoking Barrels is one of my very favourite films I have to say this would have to be very
good to even come close.
And very good it is! I have a passion for good recent British films, and especially if
they can combine the rolling British accents with some dark and witty humour.
This is another film, which Guy Ritchie has masterminded with twists and turns in the
plot and the conflicting storylines that seem to work with each other so well that you can
only wonder where these ideas come from. This is the kind of film you can watch over and
over and never tire of it, always finding more and more bits and pieces you missed the
last 6 times you watched it.
Snatch as it is so aptly named is based on a storyline of stealing a rather huge
diamond, in fact 86 carats worth of huge diamond. Franky Four Fingers (Benicio Del Toro)
steals the diamond from Antwerp. The plan is to pass the diamond onto Doug The Head (Mike
Reid) who is the cousin of his friend Avi (Dennis Farina). But when Boris the Blade (Rade
Sherbedgia) gets wind of the situation he takes on Vinny and Sol to go and collect the
Diamond for him instead. Confused yet?
Meanwhile in the local illegal boxing circles Turkish (Jason Statham) and his partner
Tommy (Stephen Graham) have managed to lose their biggest name boxer George. During a
visit to a local trailer park to pick up a second hand caravan they pick up a new fighter
the small but powerful Mickey (Brad Pitt) born of gypsy blood and this boy knows a con
when he sees it and can be just as cunning in return. Turkish finds himself reluctantly
taking on Mickey as a fighter to try and pay off some rather large debts to Bricktop (Alan
Ford).
These two hilarious stories combine when the Diamond is bungled into the hands of the
underground boxing world.
Really, if you can keep up with the story and the characters this is an amazing film.
So how does this transfer hold up?
... |
VIDEO
The 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is only just short of reference
quality. There are a lot of artistic effects used by Guy Ritchie which give the film a
distinct look and feeling which should not be confused as transfer faults. While Ritchie
has chosen a grainy and muted look, which does impede on the shadow detail this, is not a
fault of the transfer and is quite intentional. Much like Lock Stock the images are
intended to portray the seedy East End London not only through the characters but the
visual traits on show as well.
The colour palette is limited and muted for the entire film but again this is
intentional. I found no mpeg artefacts, some very minor ailiasing during the opening
credits, and only one or two small film artefacts. Other than these very small faults the
transfer is great.
.
 ... |
AUDIO
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track is mainly dialogue based
and given some of the thick British and Pikey accents this can be difficult to really get
your ears around at times. It’s not a problem with the dialogue being unclear more
that it’s almost a foreign language at times. The centre channel is highly active
with the dialogue and the front sound stage gets a good workout. Unfortunately the same
cannot be said for the rear channels and LFE. The rears do raise their heads to support
and directional effects and the score but not to an extent where there was a directionless
envelopment to the soundtrack. The LFE channel got some limited use and was disappointing
really given that this could have been a much bigger impact film with some BIG sound!
... |
EXTRAS
Disc 1
- Dolby Train Trailer: Always Appreciated
- Audio Commentary: Guy Ritchie and Mathew Vaughn: This is a
fabulous Audio commentary (and I don’t say that often). Guy Ritchie really goes into
some great depth on the making of the film and the behind the scenes antics of the
characters.
- Stealing Stones: Extended Cuts: A good little white rabbit
kind of feature whereby you can select the stones during the film and watch the deleted
scenes where they originally were placed as part of the film. Given that these scenes are
in a 4:3 ratio though it’s kind of annoying.
- Easter Egg: Pikey Subtitles: Selectable via the dogs toy in
the main menu to turn on the Pikey subtitles for Brad Pitt's speak. These appear as little
speech bubbles rather than your standard subtitles.
 ... |
Disc 2
- * Song Selection: 7 selectable songs from scenes in the film.
- Knocked Out / Cursing / Big Fight / Retreat / A Pikey's Wake / Punishment / Credits
- * International Trailer
- * Theatrical Trailer
- * Soundbites: Some extensive and interesting cast and crew interviews
- * Photo Library: A great slide type presentation of still from the film
- * Featurette: making of Snatch: A great making of doco that details some interesting
bits from the making of the film rather than just promoting it.
- Production Notes
- TV Spots: 4 very nice TV spots
- Deleted Scenes: 6, 3 of which are included in the stealing stones feature.
- Filmographies: 6 of the main characters
- Storyboard Comparison: A comparison from the storyboard to the final scenes from the
film.
- Featurette: B Roll footage: some quite good quality production film.
- Easter Egg: Fines: From the Making of Snatch press up 3 times. This is a list of the
fines, which the makers of the film imposed on the actors for holding up production for
such things as a mobile phone ringing.
- Easter Egg: Doug’s Rings: From the Making of Snatch press up twice. Yes you two can
use Doug the heads mobile phone ring tone.
- Easter Egg: Doug’s Message: From Doug’s ring select the picture of Doug and
press enter.
- Easter Egg: Swearing and Gunplay Montage: From the B Roll feature press up twice. This
is a selection of some offensive lines from the film and of course the gunplay sequences.
- Easter Egg: One-Liners: From B Roll press up 3 times: a short collection of one liners.
- Theatrical Trailer
- Cast and Crew bios
- Original Ending: 9 minutes of an alternate ending for the film.
OVERALL
If you don’t buy this just for the extras, buy it cause it’s a sensational
movie.
| PICTURE
QUALITY |
9/10 some
great intentional effects |
SOUND
- Quality
- 5.1 WOW Factor |
8/10 not too bad
7/10 a bit lame really |
| EXTRAS |
10/10 wow! |
| OVERALL |
9/10 a collectors item! |
Review Equipment
TV: GE 68cm (16:9 selectable)
DVD: Pioneer 737
Receiver: Yamaha RX-V595a
Speakers:-
Fronts: Wharfedale Diamond R6 (on a pair of custom made stands you'd KILL for)
Centre: Venturi
Rears: Sony bookshelf
Sub: M&K v75
- Reviewed 3rd June 2001
* jpeg files for internet promotion use
only. Copyright© exists on all aspects of these files by CTHE |
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