Layer Cake / Snatch (DVD)

Double bill of British gangster films. 'Layer Cake' (2004) is based on the London-set crime novel by J.J. Connelly. 'X' (Daniel Craig) is a successful, smooth-talking cocaine dealer - respected among London's crime elite - whose plan is to bankroll enough cash to make an early retirement from 'business' and lead a quiet, crime-free life. He sees the opportunity to make a final score when big crime boss Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) asks him to track down Charlotte Ryder (Nathalie Lunghi), the wayward daughter of his old friend Eddie (Michael Gambon). But complicating matters are 2 million pounds' worth of Grade A drugs, a neo-Nazi sect and endless 'layers' of deals and double-deals... Writer/director Guy Ritchie continues in mockney gangster vein with 'Snatch' (2000), the follow-up to his 1998 hit 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'. In London en route to deliver a stolen diamond to his employer Avi (Dennis Farina), thief Franky Four Fingers (Benicio Del Toro) is ambushed by Russian mobster Boris the Blade (Rade Sherbedgia). At the same time, boxing promoters Turkish and Tommy enter Irish gyspy fighter Mickey (Brad Pitt) in a fight run by local kingpin Brick Top (Alan Ford). Instead of throwing the fight as arranged, Mickey earns Brick Top's enmity by beating his fighter fair and square. Meanwhile, Avi travels to London and hires Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones) to track down Franky and the diamond - which Brick Top has now found out about and decided to appropriate from Boris...