Snatch Reevaluated

Man. Been waiting for Ben to post his review of Snatch (and the scores) to post this, so now it’s old. Contents of this post are from a text document I whipped up the morning after watching the film, so no critics saying “you waited too long to re-score this.” Turns out, I did not.

Anyway:

After hearing Ben talk about how he didn’t understand one of the scores I gave to Snatch, I was forced to reexamine the way I felt about the film and the way I scored it.

Script: 8
I stand by this. Honestly, the story is really good. It doesn’t approach perfect, but it does provide a decent amount of entertainment. My only real complaint was the over-reliance on the element of coincidence. I know that was kind of the point, but once the film depicts coincidences so often, it becomes predictable that the next scene will contain some sort of coincidence as well. What I would have liked to see was a coincidence followed by its lasting effects, kind of like the bit with the dog near the end of the film. That would have diversified the storytelling to keep the viewer guessing and intrigued. The characters were more or less splendidly drawn out, though Boris was a bit TOO immortal for suspension of disbelief. Also, sometimes the characters felt like caricatures, though for some characters, I could see that being the point. Overall, a solid script, so I stand by my previous assessment.

Acting: 8 (Reevaluated from 9 )
Yeah, I dropped the score. Previously when I rated the acting, I believe I was thinking “Hey, they had accents” or something stupid like that. Actors are expected to be able to do accents, and most second rate actors can do them just as well as headline stars. So, reevaluating the acting without really taking accents into account (even if I did, the result would not change), the score drops slightly. Acting was solid, not brilliant. There were moments that felt more forced than they should have been, especially, I felt, scenes that focused on the black guys. Their interactions were on a lower level than the other interactions, so the acting becomes firmly solid, rather than on the brink of brilliant. Also, when Turkish and the “pikers” are speaking the interaction feels (appropriately) awkward. There is a difference between appropriately awkward and characters’ lines not meshing together properly. Therefore, I reevaluate the film’s acting as a solid element, though it did not completely dazzle me.

Cinematography: 7 (Reevaluated from 8 )
Thinking back on it now, the cinematography wasn’t all that impressive. My tendency is to split the execution of the shots to cinematography and the choice of what to shoot and choreography to the directing. The shots were good, they just didn’t impress all that much. There were few really interesting angles and composition. I believe the best bit of cinematography was in keeping the continuity during the part with the three groups of characters all in different cars. That was impressive, given the different angles the shots were taken from. All in all, I found the cinematography to be good, but not great. It satisfied the needs of the viewer, but it did not leave me noticing the quality of the cinematography.

Soundtrack: 8
I stand by it. Marc thought I was crazy. The soundtrack was solid, and I agree. It’s not Lord of the Rings quality, and we all know that. I found it to be at the same level as the soundtrack for Into the Wild, in terms of the soundtrack matching and enhancing the film, and lo and behold, Into the Wild recieved the same ranking. The sound effects really were what pushed the soundtrack to being so good. Otherwise, it could have been simply sufficient.

Directing: 8
Directing is subtle, and as such, hard to rate. But I stand by my previous assessment. The sequences of shots never stagnated. There was always some sort of action in the screen frame, be it the moving of the frame itself or the movement of the actors. The movements of the characters through the frames was solid, no real issues. All in all, I found the directing to be proficient. And proficient directing is hard to notice. Bad directing, mediocre directing, and superb directing are all many times easier to see, but proficient directing is definitely subtly charming. So the directing is overall really solid.

Special Effects: 8 (Reevaluated from 7 )
I’ll be frank: I was really tempted to keep the 7. Simple realistic blood effects come down to a formula now that they have been more or less perfected, and that was the majority of the special effects in the movie. The real difference in the special effects in the boxing matches compared to Million Dollar Baby (only other movie recently watched containing boxing scenes) is the complete lack of any sort of swelling. Over several rounds of being pounded on and being made to bleed, there would be some swelling in the bleeding areas. The trailer fire could only really be accomplished by burning something, so that’s not too impressive. The guns were not really impressive looking. I mean, they pointed, there was some recoil, and they played a gunfire sound effect. I don’t remember if there was any muzzle flash. I assume so, but since guns are used so often in modern films, there is a formulaic approach to making them semi-realistic. The dog is the element that pushed the score from upper 7 to lower 8. There is a reason most films do not actively use animals: they are unpredictable, even when trained, and will ruin many shots by one wrong move. Snatch managed to not only keep the dog where they wanted it, but in a believable manner. The dog swallowing the squeak toy was probably one of the more difficult scenes from the special effects point of view, since the dog could not be allowed to ACTUALLY swallow the toy. It did look like he did, however, so that scene pushed the special effects score over the cusp. I’ll be honest though: the special effects score is still damn close to a 7. I thought I might have been wrong when Ben questioned me on the score, but upon reevaluation, I could have stuck with it and had no problems from an ethical standpoint. ”

So that’s that. If the scores are changed on the scorecard, whatever. If not, also whatever.

Man…first post on the blog and it’s about something like Snatch. I am severely disappointed.