Why So Blu?

Snatch (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

Its crazy to think that Guy Ritchie’s film Snatch is old enough to drink this year. In celebration of that occasion, here’s the debut of the film on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray. In addition to a new transfer, the film is also receiving a lovely Dolby Atmos track. It’ll come packaged with the original Blu-ray disc and a digital code to redeem on one of those streaming rental/purchase places. There aren’t any new bonus features for this, so you’ll just have to pop in the old Blu-ray (Included with this release) to check out the old ones. The film was released on the format last week on July 13th. You can order a copy using the paid Amazon Associates link that follows the review.

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Film

Illegal boxing promoter Turkish (Jason Statham) convinces gangster Brick Top (Alan Ford) to offer bets on bare-knuckle boxer Mickey (Brad Pitt) at his bookie business. When Mickey does not throw his first fight as agreed, an infuriated Brick Top demands another match. Meanwhile, gangster Frankie Four Fingers (Benicio Del Toro) comes to place a bet for a friend with Brick Top’s bookies, as multiple criminals converge on a stolen diamond that Frankie has come to London to sell.

Snatch is fun movie with a hungry Guy Ritchie opening up his stylings to a more mainstream audience. In fact, its a film I haven’t returned to in many years and have kind of slept on. I’ve always thought back fondly on it, but watching it again after probably over 10 years, I feel like I haven’t watch it enough. The film is well cut, lighthearted and moves at a great bouncy pace.

I remember when it first came out, I had a conversation with a friend about it, having been excited by it. He said “I liked it the first time when it was called Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels“. And sure, the films share their creator and some of the cast in common. What I couldn’t come up with then and I am fully assured of now, is what I would have liked to have responded to him. Its only similar in the fact that its Guy Ritchie and his style. What’s happening here, is Ritchie is yes, making a similar film. But what he’s really doing is crafting and further exploring his own genre of film. Its not unlike what the Coen Bros or Alfred Hitchcock have done consistently in their careers. Time in and time out, Ritchie makes a film like this again. Most recently, he did The Gentlemen.

That genre simply has a bit of a caper with lots of players, fast cuts, some violence and some stylish lighting or camera movements. Here we have a cast of breakout British stars, a couple American stars and a little mix of character actor British/American vets. Everybody weaves and winds and crosses and we have great exchanges and toughness to each other. Its funny to have seen Jason Statham come out of these being one of the biggest action stars on the planet, considering he’s the most non-fighter of the bunch in this and Lock, Stock. Oh, and this is one of those great weird Brad Pitt performances.

Guy Ritchie’s follow up to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a lot of fun and continues to the good vibes from that first film. Snatch ups the ante in terms of budget, production and cast. But the feeling, the laughs, the action is all the same and advancing into new places. This is a great hanging out kind of movie as well. And as I mentioned before, its one of the best in that “Guy Ritchie Genre” of movies.

Video

Disclaimer: Screen captures used in the review are taken from the standard Blu-ray disc, not the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc.

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Layers: BD-100

Clarity/Detail:  Snatch comes to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray with a new 4K transfer from the original camera negative with HDR-10. This is a very dim and gray looking feature. All by style, of course. The black levels are quite tremendous here. Plenty of good details and texture show up in this crisp, sharp picture. There’s also a really nice layer of grain that helps it looks neatly cinematic.

Depth:  Depth of field is pretty strong. Especially in the boxing scenes you get a great sense of scale and space with a lot of camera movement and slow motion. Movement is natural, smooth and no issues occur with motion distortions.

Black Levels:  Blacks are the star of this transfer, with good control on the dark rooms and shadows. It showcases a good contrast and has a lot of different shades and ability to display lots of detail, textures and patterns on dark surfaces and areas. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction:  This is a rather gray and dingy looking film, but red blood stands out decently. Colors are muted a bit but true to the styling. HDR mostly glows on lights, displays and such.

Flesh Tones:  Skin tones have a cold look to them and are consistent from start to finish of the film. Facial features and textures a quite clear with freckles, hair, stubble, lip texture, sweat, wrinkles, make-up and more clear and visible at any given distance. Going beyond, you can make out back hair follicles and tattoos with good clarity too.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean.

Audio

Audio Format(s): English (US) Dolby Atmos (7.1 Dolby TrueHD Compatible), English (US) 5.1 DTS-HD MA, English (UK) Dolby Atmos (7.1 Dolby TrueHD Compatible), English (UK) 5.1 DTS-HD MA, Czech 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, German 5.1 Dolby Digital, Hungarian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Italian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Polish VO 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital, Russian VO 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish (Castilian) 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish (Latin America) 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English (US), English (US) SDH, English (UK), English (UK) SDH, Arabic, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin American), Swedish, Thai, Turkish

Dynamics: Snatch comes with not one but two Atmos tracks. US and UK audio are provided. I’m not sure the difference on the two, but its a full feeling and engaging mix. There’s a terrific balance with great layering and depth in there. The sound effects have a sort of heightened realism to them. And for a film that is very much a “talkie” film, this has lots of fun moving around the room.

Height: From above you get some things that come from far away or soar over from above. Its pretty accurate to screen with light touches of playfulness.

Low Frequency Extension: The subwoofer hits well when the music calls for it, punches hit, bullets fly out, crashes happen and many other impact moments.

Surround Sound Presentation:  There are good full theater feeling moments here, during this like the boxing matches as well as some more quieter moments like wandering through the pig barn. Its good all around at building environments, with good rolling sound that makes solid impact.

Dialogue Reproduction:  Vocals are clear and crisp with great attention to diction and mouth sounds. Statham’s voice over is full, rich and quite clear and strong.

Extras

Snatch comes with the standard Blu-ray edition and a redeemable digital code of the film. All extras are found on the standard Blu-ray disc.

Audio Commentary

• With Writer/Director Guy Ritchie and Producer Matthew Vaughn

The Snatch Cutting Room

Making Snatch (SD, 24:42)

Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary (SD)

Storyboard Comparisons (SD)

Video Photo Gallery (SD, 5:16)

TV Spots (SD, 1:36)

Teaser Trailer (SD, :53)

Theatrical Trailer (SD, 2:02)

Summary

Snatch is a film that just flies by and is a lot of fun to sit around and check out again. Sony’s new 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray for the film features a pretty lovely transfer with really great details and a terrific Atmos track to accompany it. Unfortunately there are no new bonus features, but lucky enough the Blu-ray is here so you don’t lose any of the older ones. This is a solid pickup for a solid price!

This is a paid Amazon Associates link