`SNATCH' A MAZE OF A MOVIE, BUT IT'S GOT BRAD.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

Those who just couldn't get enough of seeing Brad Pitt beaten to a pulp in ``Fight Club'' will welcome ``Snatch.'' Those who loved Benicio Del Toro's incomprehensible mumblings in ``The Usual Suspects'' will get a thrill, too - not from Del Toro's performance here, which is in heavily Yiddish-inflected but understandable English, but again from Pitt, who plays a tattooed Irish Gypsy whose garbled lingo even the hardest-core Cockney and Brogue-speakers can make neither heads nor tails of.

The above descriptions are meant as genuine praise; or, at least, to call your attention to the most praiseworthy element of ``Snatch,'' the follow-up to hip English crime movie writer-director Guy Ritchie's ``Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels.'' (The film opens today for a one-week Academy Award-qualifying run. It returns to theaters on Jan. 19.)

Like ``Lock, Stock,'' this is another insanely intricate, profanely talky caper in which a dizzying swirl of opposing criminal interests constantly stumble bloodily into one another's way.

Overall, the new film seems like a rehashed version of the last one, clever but noticeably short of the previous work's verbal ingenuity, narrative virtuosity and cinematic zing. And while both Ritchie gangster farces owe quite a bit to ``Pulp Fiction,'' ``Snatch'' can't disguise its debt as smartly and entertainingly. Nonetheless, this is good if not great filmmaking, written with verve, shot and edited with panache and played with winningly peculiar, hard-man brio. It ain't polite, but it sure isn't stupid.

In fact, just trying to describe everyone and what they're on about is a boggling task (rest assured, though, that Ritchie keeps it all straight on screen). Del Toro's American crook Franky Four Fingers engineers the daring heist of a huge, flawless diamond in Antwerp. For some reason, he stops off in London on the way home and drops out of communication with his New York boss, Avi (Dennis Farina), who eventually crosses the Atlantic despite his distaste for all things British.

At this point, the diamond is making the rounds of various, nefarious groups. Indestructible mad Russian Boris the Blade (Rade Sherbedgia), crooked fight promoter and pig-farm operator Brick Top (Alan Ford), and some woefully inept, crooked pawnshop operators (Robbie Gee, Lennie James, Ade) all get in on the rock tossing, as does a particularly troublesome Gypsy dog.

Said pooch leads us back around to the closest things resembling good guys in the film, illegal boxing-match managers Turkish (``Lock, Stock's'' Jason Statham) and his self-styled but dweebishly inadequate enforcer Tommy (Stephen Graham). See, the Gypsies throw in dogs whenever they make a deal, and when Pitt's Mickey turns out to be the greatest bareknuckle fighter on the Sceptered Isle, the lads have to do business with him or be fed to Brick Top's pigs. This is problematic, since Mickey is congenitally incapable of following dive orders and, besides, the only words anyone can suss out while negotiating with him are ``periwinkle blue.''

But as situations grow evermore dangerous for all - including the appearance of Ritchie favorite ex-soccer thug Vinnie Jones as the ultimate East End hit man - Mickey and his traveling mates may just have the only plan that can settle things among the standing survivors. That's providing, of course, that even they know what they're up to ... and that someone can do something about that squeaking dog!

Got that? Well, it gets a lot more complicated. And the half of ``Snatch'' that doesn't feel forced is a good lot of brutal fun. But it's still Pitt who stands out from both the movie and the colorful ensemble. Note to all Hollywood pretty boys: Maybe the trick to being taken seriously for guys like you isn't copping pretentious, literate and selmportant roles, but following your natural instinct and gloriously making no sense at all.

``SNATCH''

(Rated R: violence, language, nudity)

The stars: Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Farina, Jason Flemyng, Vinnie Jones, Brad Pitt, Rade Sherbedgia, Jason Statham, Alan Ford, Robbie Gee, Ade, Stephen Graham.

Behind the scenes: Written and directed by Guy Ritchie. Produced by Matthew Vaughn. Released by Screen Gems.

Running time: One hour, 43 minutes.

Playing: Sunset 5, West Hollywood (one week only for Oscar-qualifying run).

Our rating: Three stars