Snatch

Ritchie's follow-up to Lock, Stock is an even more craftily concocted underworld entertainment, helped no end by the casting of Pitt as the bare-knuckle boxer Mickey, hellraising kingpin of a caricatured Irish Romany encampment, who get messily involved with psychopathic promoter Bricktop (Ford). The comic tone is more risqué, confident and richly enjoyed than in the earlier film. The knowing macho heroics, pubwise patter, tongue in cheek ethnic comparisons, locations and designer violence are balanced with a showman's bravado, fending off offensiveness with neat reversals, little ironies and hyperbolic buffoonery. Creating a thread through the crossweave of plot strands - involving a diamond theft, a vengeful Russian hitman and three hopeless black trainee thieves - are the antics of Tommy (Graham) and narrator Turkish (Statham). The latter is a find. His reserve, straightfaced demeanour and spot-on delivery typify Ritchie's ability to find the actors and faces that put the manners of London on screen.