‘Snitch’ directed by Ric Roman Waugh is an action film with barely any ‘action’. At that’s the least of its problems.
The main one: It’s lead…The Rock aka Dwayne Johnson. I know your films have made quite a lot of money at the box office, but you are one ‘wooden’ actor. You had one facial expression throughout the film and delivered your dialogue monotonically. Not good at all.
Johnson can get away with it in comedy, but definitely not in a dramatic piece which this film is.
He plays a businessman, John Matthews who owns a successful trucking company, Matthews is married, has a young child and all seems right in his world. That is until…
His estranged 18 year old son, Jason (Raft Gavron) from his first marriage gets busted for receiving a package filled with MDMA. Jason is going to receive a mandatory minimum 19 year sentence in federal prison.
MORAL: Don’t be dumb enough to let your drug dealing BFF talk you into receiving illegal drugs in the mail.
Anyway after Jason turns down an offer from politically ambitious U.S. Attorney, Joanne Keeghan (Susan Sarandon) to reduce his sentence by manufacturing evidence against someone else, John begs Keeghan to let him go undercover instead and pose as a guy wanting to buy coke.
Keeghan agrees. Now all John has to do is find an ex con with connection to drug dealers. Lucky for him, he has one working for him…A man named Daniel Cruz. And lucky for us, Cruz is played by Jon Bernthal who brings an authenticity to the part, something Johnson does not.
Okay so John and Cruz hook up with coke dealer, Malik (the excellent Michael Kenneth) and do a trial run…All goes well, so John catches the eyes and ears of the head of the drug cartel, Juan Carlos (Benjamin Bratt) Now our guy is ready for the ‘big, big time’.
As I mentioned, If you’re waiting for some heavy duty action, it doesn’t come…Not until the last 15 minutes of the film. And trust me, it is not worth the wait.
Rounding out the cast is Barry Pepper, as undercover cop, Billy Cooper, Melina Kanakaredes as Sylvia, John’s first wife.
‘Snitch’ written by Waugh along with Justin Haythe opens in theatres Friday February 22.
The film received one of my lowest bagel scores…1 1/2. Check out our video for John’s score and of course, for more of us.
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