Snatch

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Snatch is nothing if not watchable: It has the insane, popcorn rhythms of a Road Runner cartoon, and for that reason alone it's a minor masterpiece.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Ritchie's got something all his own: a go-for-broke energy that cuts through the cliches of the crime genre.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Another whirling crime caper that leaves you shocked and chuckling at the same time.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

The abundance of visual and verbal wit here ensures that the pleasure of watching Snatch need not be guilty.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

All about macho my-weapon-is-bigger-than-your-weapon posturing and far-fetched coincidences that slam together in an entertaining rush.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Although the jokes aren't as consistently funny as those in "Lock, Stock," once again writer-director Ritchie demonstrates a deeply pleasurable combination of verbal flair and visual wit while conveying the genuine, intimidating hardness of the English working class and its love of language.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

The convoluted story is an excuse for comical tricks of the camera, fractures of chronology, acid punch lines and amusingly excessive performances. (In this latter category, Pitt, so deep into his character that you can smell him, wins the day gloriously.)

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Snatch is admittedly superficial, if not downright disposable. More importantly, though, the movie is also fantastic, cheeky fun.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Even if it's not quite as lighter than air as its predecessor, Snatch remains a lethal diversion.

Time Richard Corliss

O.K., Ritchie mistakes flash for style. Perhaps that's the price you pay for storytelling exuberance. If he keeps making films as down and witty as Snatch, we may learn to forgive him.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Although the plot is crucial, it's the interaction among characters that makes Snatch percolate. Ritchie knows when to stop and smell the comedy.

Film.com Tom Keogh

It's possible that Ritchie's most important asset is the comic constant within his characters' existential dilemmas. To a man (and, indeed, they're all men), Ritchie's anti-heroes are at odds, in either large or small ways, with their own natures.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Though far from a sophomore slump, Snatch, like "Smoking Barrels," is such a grab bag of other influences that it's tough to figure out what, if anything, about Ritchie's style is uniquely his own.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Belongs to that distinctly '90s genre of sadistic crime comedy whose time has clearly come and gone.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

If the film is too similar to Ritchie's first movie, "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" with its multiple story lines, complex plotting, and double-crossing antics, it's at least colorfully told with dialogue that shines with the inventive slang of Ritchie's screenplay.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Since the main reason I go to movies is to engage with characters, I prefer "The Pledge," the film opening today by Madonna's first husband, Sean Penn, rather than this stylish fluff by her second spouse.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The movie was snatched, all right, and Ritchie is the culprit.

LA Weekly John Patterson

It all feels rather laddish and belabored, but it will eat up 90 minutes of your time without making you regret the loss.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Mr. Ritchie is back with more of the same in his second feature, a comedy called "Snatch" that's a sort of lethal pinball machine in which even more picturesque characters bounce from pillage to post.

Newsweek David Ansen

Those who haven’t seen “Lock, Stock” will probably get a bigger kick out of Snatch than those who have. The second time around, what seemed spontaneous can sometimes feel strained.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

There's talent here, but for directing, not writing. If Ritchie wants to last, he's going to have to allow somebody else to write his screenplays.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Mr. Ritchie seems to be stepping backward when he should be moving ahead.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Follows the "Lock, Stock" formula so slavishly it could be like a new arrangement of the same song.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Guy Ritchie's second feature, is a faux tough caper modeled lock, stock, kit, and caboodle on his earlier film ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.''

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

More isn't always better; everything feels slightly forced, and the funny bits -- make no mistake, there are several -- are all but lost in the noise.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

The problem with all this don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it dramaturgy is that ultimately everything is sacrificed for effect. When you're dealing, as Ritchie is, with explosions of real violence and viciousness, the hyperslick technique can't accommodate the real pain that comes with the territory, or ought to. What we're left with is a cackling amorality -- not a philosophy of life, just a posture.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

One could argue that ''Lock, Stock'' and Snatch are essentially the same movie - crime comedies marked by an outlandish visual style. Which raises the question of whether Ritchie has the range to do anything else.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Ritchie may be skilled at generating controlled chaos, but his surprise-a-minute strategy ultimately holds no surprises; Snatch is even more frenetically boring than his 1999 "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels."

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

Emits the embarrassing aura of a filmmaker desperate to be considered cool, yet utterly inept at finding original ways to reach that status.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

It takes a very clever schoolboy to make a movie as elaborately empty as Guy Ritchie's Snatch.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

For those who care, Madonna has found her match in Guy Ritchie, whose absence of talent when it comes to the film medium is equal to her own.