I had pretty high expectations walking into Guy Ritchie’s new film. The writer/director’s previous offering, 1998’s Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, struck me as a thoroughly amusing piece of British crime-comedy (crimedy??). Also, the theatrical trailer for Snatch was one of those "damnIgottaseethat" previews that made me briefly forget whatever it was I was about to see. It had diamonds, boxing, guns, and funny-talkers, so it had to be good. Right?

Turns out, that’s exactly what Snatch is. Good. Not great, mind you, but pretty good. Ritchie’s script offers some fascinating characters, witty dialogue, and engaging visuals. Other elements, however, could have used some fine-tuning.

The basic plot line is as follows: four men dressed as Hasidic Jews rob a Belgian diamond outlet. One of them, Franky Four Fingers (Benicio Del Toro), has the unfortunate job of getting the booty, an 85-karat diamond, to London and eventually on to his cousin, the diamond-dealing Avi (Dennis Farina), in New York. Simple enough. But oh, that witty Ritchie can’t let this happen without any problems or he wouldn’t have himself much of a movie, would he? Instead, all sorts of problems arise when Franky gets double-crossed by one of his partners. The result is an intricate mix of story lines and plots that eventually find their way into one nifty ending, a la Pulp Fiction or that teeny-bopper crap-fest, Go.

Along the way, the audience is treated to some thoroughly amusing characters. Though Del Toro’s performance is relatively empty, a strong showing from Ritchie’s English contingency carries the film. The duo of the cynical Turkish (Jason Stratham) and soft-boy Tommy (Stephen Graham) is as close as the movie gets to heroes, and the unlicensed boxing promoters share a convincingly friendly chemistry. Vinny (Robbie Gee), Sol (Lennie James), along with their get-away driver and Biggie Smalls lookalike Tyrone (Ade), contribute a few laughs as the bumbling thieves, and a strong performance from Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones) ups both the violent and comedic value of Snatch.

Among the throngs of characters, two performances stand out from the rest. The first is the competing boxing promoter, Brick Top (Alan Ford). Brick…excuse me…Mr. Top, is hands down the most evil son of a bitch in the movie, which is saying quite a lot. He’s a cattle-prodding, dog-beating, pig-feeding bastard who loves a proper cup of tea. Trust me, you shudder when this guy is on screen.

The second, and I really hate to admit this, is Brad Pitt’s role as One Punch Mikey O’Neil, the tattooed gypsy who never loses a fight. I swear, the guy is like the idiot savant of the acting community. I’ve see him in interviews, and he’s as smart as a bowl of steamed carrots, but on screen he somehow makes everything work. His accent in Snatch is a dumbfounding mixture of English, Irish, and some sort of weird Baltic dialect.

Despite all these strong on-screen performances, the movie ultimately gets snagged on the ego of the man behind its camera. If ever there were an example of over-direction, this is it. Utilizing nearly all of the cinematic tricks that have become fashionable of late (freeze-frame, slowed-down footage, sped-up footage, and quick-cut flashbacks), Ritchie does everything in his power to remind the audience that Snatch is his movie. Granted, some of Ritchie’s stylistic strokes are appealing, like Cousin Avi’s (Dennis Farina) whiskey-shooting, passport-stamping, abbreviated journeys across the Atlantic. Others, like the unnecessarily dramatic, letter-by-letter pounding of "Desert Eagle .50" along the barrel of Bullet Tooth Tony’s gun, add nothing but clutter to an already crowded film.

Ritchie’s showing as a writer is mixed as well. He’s sculpted an intricate story line with clever dialogue between well-crafted characters. Unfortunately, the script at times suffers from written gaffes along the same lines as Ritchie’s directorial audacities. Quick-witted conversations are one thing, but when every sentence is a punchline, the dialogue begins to feel forced. Ritchie seems so intent on delivering zingers that he forgets to stay within the realm of plausibility. People, even the English, simply don’t have this many anecdotes and witticisms floating around their heads.

All in all, Snatch is an abundantly amusing, undeniably good movie directed by a man intent on finding the spotlight. I suppose being married to the most famous woman in the world is enough to give any moderately famous English director an inferiority complex, but Ritchie goes a little overboard in his effort to make a name for himself.