Snatch (Superbit Deluxe, 2000)
Film:
DVD:

Written & Directed by Guy Ritchie
Starring Jason Statham, Brad Pitt, Alan Ford, Dennis Farina, Benicio Del Toro

Features:

• Making Snatch featurette
  
• Storyboard comparisons
  
• Deleted scenes with optional commentary by director Ritchie and producer Matthew Vaughn
• Video photo gallery
  
• TV spots
  
• Filmographies
  
• Theatrical trailers
  

Anamorphic: Yes.

My Advice: Own It. Although I miss the commentary.

The man's name is Turkish (Statham), and he's a boxing promoter. He and his partner, Tommy (Stephen Graham), are seeking out a new base of operations (i.e., a spiffy trailer), when they run into a problem with the gypsies that they're buying it from. This winds up crossing their paths with a local heavy (Ford) pissed off at them, a jewel thief (Del Toro) who's trying to deal in a extremely rare diamond, an almost indestructible and extremely lethal madman (Rade Sherbedgia), and a hitman (Vinnie Jones) whose taken more bullets than most people have had cavities. And...ah...there's a dog, too.

The movie is just a damn wheelbarrow load of carnage and fun. As I stated in my review of the film, it's really close in tone and subject matter to Ritchie's debut, Lock Stock--however, you're having such a good time you can't care about that. This time around, though, the notoriety of the first film lets him bring a wider range of casting into play. Because of this, you get Ritchie staples like Jones and Statham--not to mention a brilliant Alan Ford. But you also get Brad Pitt in "indie mode" as a gypsy boxer who speaks perhaps five intelligible words during the course of the film, Del Toro in a smaller role and Farina playing an excellent tough guy. Lots of testosterone to go around, but like I said, it's a hoot of the first degree.

This is one of those Superbit jobs from Columbia TriStar, although it's Deluxe as well. Translation: you get the first disc sans special features but hyped up with higher quality video and audio, but you also get the second disc from the normal edition with all of its bells and whistles. It's a bit of a "best of both worlds" proposition. Now, with this edition you've lost the ability to branch deleted scenes in with the feature, as well as the rather amusing and informative commentary on the feature by Ritchie and producer Vaughn. For huge fans of the film, this will be a problem, but honestly, for archival purposes--how many times are you going to watch the film with commentary? If you have to, rent the one with the commentary, but stick with this one. The music is even better in Superbit mode, and the higher quality video is painfully evident--watch the boxing sequences and you'll know what I mean. So in those respects, this set is choice.

The making-of featurette is actually rather nice, and amusing--centered around Statham interviewing Ritchie over a game of chess, complete with all the bickering and good-natured bitching you would imagine. Chocked full of footage and other mayhem, it's the kind of bit you would imagine coming from Ritchie...and honestly, the kind of stuff I wish had been on the previous film's disc.

From there, it's pretty much standard stuff. You get six deleted scenes to deal with, and the commentary for those is fairly novel. And the storyboard comparisons let you watch three scenes with the film going and the storyboard pics together on the screen. Then, of course, there's the easter egg that presents you with a montage of violence and profanity from the film. Find it yourself--trust me, you'll like it.

Like I said, apart from the commentary being AWOL, this set is pretty much definitive for Ritchie fans or fans of the film. The quality is good enough to where you won't miss the director/producer spiel--though I would rent the normal version to listen through it once. But if you must own a copy, make it this one.