JUST as Quentin Tarantino trumped his Reservoir Dogs debut with Pulp Fiction, so British director Guy Ritchie confidently follows up his surprise first hit Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels with a more mature sequel.

Indeed, he is not so much displaying confidence as downright arrogance.

Add his status as Madonna's beau, and Ritchie is fast becoming meat for a media murder.

At the end of the clich, however, you must judge him on his movie, not his attitude. Snatch is another piece of bravura, risque film-making, an amoral Britpop gangster yarn far better than all the blank-firing imitations churned out since Lock, Stock shot to the top, and this time Brad Pitt is in on the macho comic action.

Showman Ritchie is back in the rotting London underworld for another speeding, flash-edited, loud and lewd tale of diamond geezers, a labyrinthine story of "stealing stones and breaking bones" that leaves The Sweeney looking soft and is so fast and crafty you need to see it twice to work out the director's sleight of hand, let alone the London patter.

Pitt is in wiry fighting mode once more after Fight Club, playing 'pikey' bareknuckle boxer One Punch Mickey O'Neil, the heavy-drinking pride and power of a London Irish tinker family who talks even faster than he punches.

He pulls a fast one on Mod-dressed Cockney-wideboys Turkish and Tommy (Jason Statham, Stephen Graham) by selling them a dud caravan for their new office, and then lands these unlicensed boxing promoters in even more trouble by busting the jaw of their prizefighter Gorgeous George.

Cool and reserved Turkish and pushy Tommy are already up to their necks in manure with Bricktop (the seriously evil Alan Ford), a pig-farming, psychopathic match-fixer with a predilection for feeding his porkers on human flesh.

Meanwhile, jewel courier Four Fingers Frankie (Benicio Del Toro) has headed from Antwerp to London, bearing a diamond - bigger than Madonna's new ring - for US dealer Avi (Dennis Farina) via his British contact (Mike Reid).

Frankie's not long for this world, soon to take his final curtain call courtesy of former Russian special forces loose cannon Boris the Blade (Rade Serbedzija). Arms dealer Boris newly has in his employ the hapless, hopeless pawnshop owners Vinny and Sol and their dim-witted getaway driver Tyrone, summoned to blow up Bricktop's betting premises and nick the diamond.

Add Vinnie Jones, reprising his Big Chris role as Bricktop's henchman Bullettooth Tony, and the dazzling parade of villainous vermin is complete, and if you wonder how all these plot lines can possibly come together, leave it to Ritchie. Whereas Mike Figgis had four screens on the go in Timecode, it feels like there is so much going on in Snatch, Ritchie could do with borrowing the split-screen technique.

Assembling designer-violent fight scenes, streetwise comedy, an ace soundtrack, Scorsese-lashings of swearing, a quietly-impressive Statham and Pitt loving every minute of it, the knowing Snatch exposes the London underbelly for maximum tickling.

Snatch (18), 120 minutes, Warner Village, York; City Screen, York; York Odeon and Harrogate Odeon