Snatch (2000)

"You know... fish and chips, cup of tea, bad food, worse weather, Mary fucking Poppins... London!"

I once saw this film, back in uni, and I watched it properly- i.e, after I'd seen Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Sadly I've yet to blog Mr Madonna's acclaimed debut, and am probably blogging things in the wrong order. Well, soz, but I haven't got either on DVD and it's Snatch that happens to be on Netflix. So here we are.

Anyway, I loved it. It's very of its time, very much trying to be a Cockney version of Tarantino, and not much different in style or theme to its predecessor. And no, it doesn't come close to Tarantino- it doesn't have the depth, wit or cinematic literacy, but not many films have. But it nevertheless manages to be funny, cool, and make a complex and non-linear plot easy to follow, which is not exactly an easy feat of writing or directing. And both the cast and direction are top notch. No, it may not be Pulp Fiction, much as its trying to be that kind of film, but it oozes charm and gets away with being derivative through its sheer Cockneyness. Bloody southerners.


I'd single out Jason Statham and a menacing Alan Ford for their performances, while Brad Pitt's performance is certainly unique. Is it racist in how it portrays Irish Travellers (not Roma)? Well, arguably they're eventually shown to be, if anyone is, the goodies, and we still live in a world where racism towards travelling peoples still seems to be seen as ok in a way other kinds of racism aren't- the film is probably no more racist in this area than the society that spawned it.

Aside from that, and a dodgy America-friendly reference to non-existent "social security numbers", the film is a splendidly enjoyable way to spend 100 odd minutes. Mr Madonna done good.

The Walking Dead- Season 1, Episode 1: Days Gone Bye

"Is this real? Am I here?"

So, er... about me finishing off Buffy and Angel before I start anything else? I'm on it, really I am, but we have a missing disc from Angel season four that I suspect to be 200 miles away and... Mrs Llamastrangler and I just happened to start watching The Walking Dead. So I might as well blog it.

This is an extraordinary looking piece of television and, while pilot episodes are never the best ones as they have so many jobs to do and are setting the stage for good stuff later, you can tell that this is going to be a well-written, well-acted and thoughtful take on the zombie apocalypse

I watched Teachers back in my university days at the turn of the millennium, so first impressions of seeing him as a sheriff in Georgia with an accent to match are bloody disconcerting, but once I'd got past that barrier it was easy to appreciate his strengths as a sympathetic everyman, a hero with problems in the form of a rocky marriage- very much a hero in the Marvel mound; being a trained cop is very much a superpower after the zombie apocalypse.

Yes, this origin story, with Rick waking from a coma to find that the zombie apocalypse has happened, is more than a little Day of the Triffids, but it's also a neat short cut; we all know the zombie tropes, which also helps. It's an extra-long opening episode, but a lot of its work has already been done with the tropes being familiar. Including the cop show stuff at the start, which was pure Dukes of Hazzard.

The only possible criticism I have of this is to ask who carries a match in the twenty-first century, but that's a minor quibble. And I have to raise an eyebrow at both Rick and exposition man Morgan are American characters played by British actors, but this is brilliant, constantly and gradually revealing the true horror of the situation. We end with Rick trapped inside a tank, surrounded by the extremely large zombie population of Atlanta...