Pitt was cast as an Irish Traveller boxer with a barely intelligible accent in Guy Ritchie's 2000 gangster film "Snatch". Several reviewers were critical of "Snatch"; however, most praised Pitt. Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" said Pitt was "ideally cast as an Irishman whose accent is so thick even Brits can't understand him", going on to say that, before "Snatch", Pitt had been "shackled by roles that called for brooding introspection, but recently he has found his calling in black comic outrageousness and flashy extroversion;" while Amy Taubin of "The Village Voice" claimed that "Pitt gets maximum comic mileage out of a one-joke role". The following year Pitt starred opposite Julia Roberts in the romantic comedy "The Mexican", a film that garnered a range of reviews but enjoyed box office success. Pitt's next role, in 2001's $143 million-grossing Cold War thriller "Spy Game", was as Tom Bishop, an operative of the CIA's Special Activities Division, mentored by Robert Redford's character. Mark Holcomb of Salon.com enjoyed the film, although he noted that neither Pitt nor Redford provided "much of an emotional connection for the audience".