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When it comes to Dwayne Johnson movies, audiences tend to expect gritty action and adventure. With the exception of the occasional silly family comedy, the former wrestler tends to stick to movies like Fast Five and Faster. But he takes an unexpected turn into slower family drama in his latest film, Snitch.
Johnson stars as John Matthews, an honest, hard-working businessman who seems to have it all: a successful business, a big house, a beautiful wife, and a couple of great kids. But his neat, comfortable life begins to come crashing down when his teenage son, Jason (Rafi Gavron), is arrested by the DEA after being set up by his best friend. The only way he’ll serve less than the 10-year minimum is if he cooperates with the DEA—but Jason refuses to set someone else up.
Desperate to help his son, Matthews sets up a meeting with Federal Prosecutor Joanne Keeghan (Susan Sarandon). In exchange for leniency for his son, he agrees to use some of his contacts—including ex-con employee Daniel James (Jon Bernthal)—to go undercover and set up a drug bust. But he soon finds himself in over his head.
Snitch isn’t what you might expect from the beefy action star. Though it may sound like a gritty thriller, filled with tough guys and shoot-outs, it’s actually more of an overgrown After School Special about the dangers of trusting your trouble-making, drug-dealing friends, followed by a made-for-TV movie about a dad on a dangerous mission to save his messed-up kid. Sure, there’s a cursory shoot-out in the middle and a longer car chase toward the end—and the whole thing is given the shaky-cam effect, in an attempt to trick audiences into thinking that it’s actually action-packed—but most of the film is slow and melodramatic and totally overcooked.
While Johnson generally makes a likable action star, he seems totally out of his element as the doting dad. If his character is so busy working overtime to keep his business successful (before rushing off to pick up his little girl’s birthday cake), where does he find the time to maintain biceps so bulging that he can never seem to put his arms down? And with his menacing, muscle-bound appearance, he just doesn’t work as the kind of mild-mannered nice-guy who gets beaten up by small-time, street-corner drug dealers or who cowers at the sight of a gun-toting thug.
Had Snitch been more action-packed, the film’s heavy-handed family melodrama may have been almost forgivable. But this mess of silly stereotypes and overacting makes for a surprisingly dull adventure.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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