Snitch
So 2013 seems to be the Year of the Rock. This year there are about five or six movies that will feature or star the big guy and fortunately none of them are family movies about my boy flying a bee. I will be honest, I am a fan! The Rock was the man that official got me into wrestling in my youth. Critic is in my blood and I was able to notice the fakeness of wrestling at a young age. But when The Rock hit the ring, I was hooked, and when he retired from wrestling, I followed.
So now that I got that out of my system I will continue to say that although I am a fan, I am not a fan off all of his roles on the silver screen. Unfortunately, I am still a critic and the Rock playing a tooth fairy was not where I imagined his career to go. So will The Rock's first movie of 2013 be a disappointment, or will The Rock finally evolve into Dwayne Johnson as an actor?
Cast and Crew
Snitch is is directed by Ric Roman Waugh, the director of Gone in 60 seconds and Total Recall, the Arnold Version....Ouch, I know, that sounds funny. While Ric R. Waugh has a slightly cheesy film history I can say that he handles this film well and Snitch is his best film to date. With slick Cinematography and suspense filled scenes Ric Roman Waugh easily shows his seniority and expertise in the way he handles this movie. Our staring cast includes Dwayne Johnson as the construction business owner, John Matthews, and John Bernthal, as his assistant and employee, Daniel James. While the story mainly revolves around these two characters, the supporting cast includes; Ravi Gavron as Matthews's son; Micheal Kenneth Williams, as a drug dealing suspect; and Barry Pepper as a deep cover lead investigator. The supporting cast is very strong in this movie and these characters help provide a wealth of depth to the two main characters in this story. You essentially care about these individuals and that is something that is needed in a drama of this caliber.
The Story
Yup, I said Drama you guys so be ready for a heavy dialogue driven movie when you watch Snitch. It seems strange to envision an actor like the Dwayne Johnson play a drama role but he surprisingly fits so well with this movie. I have to say as a viewer seeing a character as physically toned as The Rock being vulnerable is one of the ultimate reality checks in a movie.
Snitch is the story about a father who has to put his own life and the life of his family in danger because of the mistakes of his dumb son. As you see in the trailer Matthews' son makes one of the dumbest decisions in crime movie history...he initiates a drug deal on Skype......
"Derrrrrrrp...catch the dwugs durrrrr"
After his special son does this, Matthews has set other drug dealers up in order to prevent the police from locking the boy up for ten years mandatory minimum and now we have our movie.
Performances
This story could have played out one of three ways. This could have been a piece of PG propaganda geared towards rebellious children to keep them away from drugs. This could have been a dumb revenge movie about the rock walking around putting bullets in random drug dealers. Or this could be a realistic story of a situation families go through when a child makes a mistake. Fortunately Snitch is a blend of all three of these. There is a lesson to be learned but it is not in your face. Yes the son goes to jail but this is not a typical story of an innocent boy being victimized. The audience witness the mistake and see that the boy deserves some type of punishment. We see a family going through the pain of possibly loosing a loved one. Through Daniel James, we see that some people are involved in criminality for a reason and it is difficult escaping from the stigma of a criminal record. Through Malik, Micheal Williams' character, and the Cartel involved we see that the drug game is a serious, organized and dangerous world. The main characters are smart, and the criminals are smart and the story is believable. The best part of the performances is the suspense. When characters are tense, you will be tense. When guns start firing, the experience is very unlike your typical action film. People shoot and you as the audience member don't want characters to get shot, and that emotion is very difficult to pull out of an audience these days.
The Rating
I have to recommend this film. The message of the film is real and something that I feel teens have to see. Many movies and hip hop artists glamorize the drug game and this movie does a good job of showing what many people go through when their loved ones make the decision to cross over into criminality. At the same time the message is not shoved in your face and you will have a good time sitting through the movie. This year has been pretty lame for movies. It seemed as though directors though the world was really going to end but Dwayne Johnson saves the day in this performance and I finally feel like my bucks were well spent. Snitch, after a taste I gotta say you were...
Nutritious and Satisfying
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