Part crime-drama and part action romp, "Snitch" is a forgettable story of vigilante justice that fails to follow through with its overarching sociopolitical leanings.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson plays the lead of John Matthews, the owner of a construction company whose son is sentenced to 10 years in prison for possession of narcotics with intent to distribute. In a desperate attempt to greatly reduce his son's prison sentence, John comes up with a harebrained scheme to go undercover and incriminate local drug kingpins in exchange for his son's freedom.
By doing so John must plead his case to Joanne Keeghan, the local U.S. District Attorney, played by Susan Sarandon, who has a hardline stance on the mandatory minimum laws. Risking both her career and the life of a complete stranger, Keeghan agrees to help John by reducing his son's sentence on the condition that he informs on a local drug dealer — and with that, all vestiges of reality are thoroughly abandoned.
The Rock recruits a low-level employee of his, Daniel James (Jon Bernthal), an ex-con with connections to the drug syndicate. With Daniel's help, John meets a local kingpin named Malik who believes John wants to work as a drug mule in order to save his struggling business. It is through Malik that John and Daniel eventually catch the eye of a Mexican drug cartel leader named Juan Carlos Pintera. As Keeghan shifts her interest on going after Pintera due to his high profile in the drug community, she gives John the runaround.
The movie just continues to crumble in on itself as John is eventually found out to be a rat, a plot twist highlighted by a lackluster car chase. In the grand scheme of things, it's actually the only action to be found in the movie, which means The Rock's chiseled stature virtually goes to waste. Luckily, Dwayne Johnson has evolved into a solid leading man who has outgrown his wrestling moniker. Unfortunately, "Snitch" is simply not the vessel in which his acting talents are meant to shine through.
At times "Snitch'' even resembles a B-movie, especially during scenes where John visits his tear-filled son in prison. For a movie striving to offer legitimate social commentary, a lot of the discussion in regard to mandatory minimum sentences gets muddled amid the ridiculous nature of the plot. By the end, when The Rock is running cartel members off the interstate in a semi, nearly all thoughts of flaws in our judicial system are all but forgotten. If you're expecting an action thriller, look elsewhere. But if a predictable crime drama is more your speed, "Snitch" has everything you're looking for.
The Blu-ray release is about what you'd expect from such a movie. Extras feature a director commentary from Ric Roman Waugh and editor Jonathan Chibnall, deleted scenes and a making-of featurette.
Film: 2.5 Yaps Extras: 2.5 Yaps
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rieI5g9fgRc]