Long before he became involved with billion-dollar box office smash hits, colossal bombs that rank among the biggest in history, or a steady stream of solid action thrillers, Guy Ritchie helped define a decade of British cinema after bursting onto the scene with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch around the turn of the millennium.
The comparisons between the two were easy to make given that they both featured Ritchie’s signature stylistic and storytelling signatures, with each revolving around a motley crew of character actors and movie stars getting caught up in a convoluted scheme that inevitably led to double-crosses, death, and general chaos at every turn.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” seemed to be the mantra through his first two features, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t held up as unsung greats that left behind a huge influence and legacy. However, Snatch‘s longevity ended up giving rise to a sequel series that arrived almost two decades later, one that was resolutely panned into the ground by critics and ultimately axed after two seasons.
It didn’t need to exist, nobody asked for it to be a thing, so there weren’t many folks left surprised when it turned out to be so terrible. That being said, its progenitor evidently remains capable of drawing in a crowd on-demand, with FlixPatrol outing Snatch as one of the most popular titles on the iTunes global charts this week.
Ritchie’s filmography has almost entirely been defined by inconsistency, but if Swept Away wasn’t a thing, then there’s a decent shout for the small screen Snatch being the worst thing he’s ever lent his name to.